About

NOPREN’s Hunger-Safety Net-Clinical Linkages Subgroup is comprised of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and food systems leaders committed to raising awareness of food insecurity within health care settings and improving nutrition policies and priorities in the hunger safety net through shared research and evaluation.

Mission

The Clinical Linkages Subgroup aims to examine the current state of clinical linkage systems in place to help health care providers identify food insecurity in their patients and provide appropriate referrals to community and clinic-based resources.

Key Activities and Findings

Key focal areas of the Clinical Linkages Subgroup include:

• Raising awareness around the importance of screening for and addressing food insecurity in clinical settings.
• Identifying existing assessment tools available to clinicians and current referral processes in place among various practice-based networks.
• Developing best practices for clinical-community linkages to address food insecurity.

Resources

Clinical Linkages Working Group Publishes a Viewpoint in JAMA Pediatrics! Barnidge E, Stenmark S, Seligman H. Clinic-to-Community Models to Address Food Insecurity. JAMA Pediatr. Published online April 03, 2017. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.0067

Learn about a few of the existing community-to-clinic treatment models here.

Screening Algorithms for Food Insecurity:

Pediatric Patients

Adults

Patients Living with Diabetes

Key Papers and Articles:

Screening and Referral for Food Insecurity in Kaiser Permanente Colorado Briefs: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

Gottlieb LM, Hessler D, Long D, et al. Effects of social needs screening and in-person service navigation on child health: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2016 Nov 7;170(11):e162521.

Gupta V, Baer T, Hamdan A, Brodowski K. How Community Partnerships Can Help End Food Insecurity (Parts 1 and 2). Health Affairs Blog. 2016

Stenmark S, Soloman L, Allen-Davis J, Brozena C. Linking the Clinical Experience to Community Resources To Address Hunger in Colorado. Health Affairs Blog. 2015.

Tool Kits:

AAP/FRAC Toolkit to Address Food Insecurity Among Pediatric Patients

Health Leads Screening Tool Kit

PRAPARE Tool Kit

Launching Rx for CalFresh in San Diego: Integrating Food Security into Healthcare Settings

Contacts

Ellen Barnidge
Associate Professor
Saint Louis University
College for Public Health and Social Justice
Email: barnidge@slu.edu

Stephen Cook
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Center for Community Health,
Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester
Golisano Children’s Hospital at the URMC
Email: stephen_cook@urmc.rochester.edu