Ask about practical needs with a response in mind

What we found in the news

AHRQ's 2024 toolkit on attending to social needs (opens in a new tab) discusses how practices can identify practical needs and connect people with available resources. It also recognizes a point that can be missed in a screening workflow:

“Patients may not want or need help at that time”

— AHRQ, Attend to Social Needs: Tool 18, “Connect patients with resources”

The page was created in February and reviewed in April 2024. It is practice guidance, not evidence that collecting more answers automatically improves someone's circumstances.

Why this matters to us

In an illustrative clinic visit, a person mentions that transport costs make repeat appointments difficult. They may want information about available options. They may want help making contact. They may prefer to discuss it later.

Those are different responses to the same practical difficulty.

At genus, we are interested in what happens between noticing a need and offering useful help. A question deserves a clear purpose. People should have an understandable choice about what happens with the answer, within the responsibilities of the service.

Explain the reason for the question

Staff can tell the person why the team asks about practical circumstances, who will see the information and what kinds of assistance the service can realistically offer.

Choose a suitable setting for the conversation. Someone may not want to discuss money or housing in front of a companion or in an open reception area. Offer the privacy and communication support available through the organization's process.

Avoid making assumptions from appearance, address or a previous record. Circumstances change, and the person is the source of their own current priorities.

The responsible team must also be ready for urgent concerns and safeguarding responsibilities. Explain the limits of confidentiality appropriately and use the established professional process when those situations arise.

For ordinary resource support, asking whether the person wants help now can prevent an unwanted referral from becoming the default next step.

Prepare the route before adding another field

A team can ask many questions without having the capacity to respond to every answer. Make that limitation visible when designing the workflow.

Which staff member can discuss available options? Who checks whether a resource still exists and is accepting enquiries? What happens when the relevant service has a waiting list?

For the transport example, a list of telephone numbers may be enough for someone who wants to make their own arrangements. Another person may need help understanding eligibility or contacting the service. Agree the level of assistance instead of assuming that everyone needs the same handoff.

Do not promise that a referral will lead to a place or a benefit. Explain what has been requested, what is confirmed and what remains uncertain.

Notice the needs your process cannot meet

When no suitable resource is available, record the gap through the appropriate service process. That is different from recording that the person declined an available option.

Managers can review recurring barriers in an appropriately aggregated way. Perhaps transport operates at the wrong time, an application is difficult to complete or a resource list sends people to disconnected numbers.

These patterns can inform a discussion with partners. They should not be used to label individuals as difficult to engage or to imply that staff can solve wider shortages through persistence alone.

Ask people, through a suitable feedback route, whether the offered next step was useful. A completed screening form describes a conversation; it does not describe whether someone's practical circumstances changed.

The genus connection

Today, a configured genus Care Wall and resource experience can help organizations make reviewed local information easier to find. Available coordination tools can support the actions a team has agreed with a person.

Resource information needs an owner, a review process and realistic descriptions of access. A digital listing does not confirm eligibility, capacity or acceptance by another organization. Teams remain responsible for consent, follow-up and the limits of their role.

For us, the useful connection is between an honest conversation and an understandable next step. Technology can help keep that step visible, while the person retains a say in whether and how to take it.

One question to take away

Before your team asks about a practical need, can it explain what response the person can choose and what help is actually available?