Assess financial strain

Financial strain can be invisible.

Community listened to community partners and members.

Community members and stakeholders came together to understand financial strain in their community. They worked to understand the experiences of those with financial strain. 

fULL STORY HERE

Alberta-based screening question for Primary Care

Primary Care Network staff used the Alberta’s Poverty Screening Clinical Tool for Primary Care Providers to help identify patients who experience financial strain.  ​They documented the response as well as the actions they took in the patient's electronic medical record.

Brian, a Primary Care Network (PCN) Executive Director, found the whole team shifted their thinking and overcame challenges by screening for financial strain in their primary care setting.

Brian's story

Healthcare teams discovered the power of starting with one question: 

"Do you ever have difficulty making ends meet at the end of the month?”

1. Centre for Effective Practice. Poverty: A Clinical Tool for Primary Care. https://cep.health/clinical-products/poverty-a-clinical-tool-for-primary-care-providers/?&region=5#pc_page_444. Published 2016.
2. Bloch G, Rozmovits L. Implementing social interventions in primary care. Can Med Assoc J. 2021;193(44):E1696 LP-E1701. doi:10.1503/cmaj.210229
3. Meyer, J. R., Debonis, R. S., & Broderson, L. D. (2022). Use of a Poverty Screening Question to Predict Social Determinants. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 18 (5), 553-557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2021.12.020