How Trauma-Informed Programming to Treat Social Determinants Unveils Challenges to Systems Alignment.

Cross-sector collaboration and systems alignment to promote a culture of health can address social determinants of health (SDH), improve family well-being, and create a more equitable society. This paper documents our attempt to align Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid to promote health through a trauma-informed program, The Building Wealth and Health Network (The Network). The Network successfully integrated into traditional TANF and addresses SDH through peer-group programming where caregivers heal from adversity and build financial skills.

Financial health as a measurable social determinant of health.

Objectives: Financial health, understood as one's ability to manage expenses, prepare for and recover from financial shocks, have minimal debt, and ability to build wealth, underlies all facets of daily living such as securing food and paying for housing, yet there is inconsistency in measurement and definition of this critical concept. Most social determinants research and interventions focus on siloed solutions (housing, food, utilities) rather than on a root solution such as financial health. In light of the paucity of public health research on financial health, particularly among low-income populations, this study seeks to: 1) introduce the construct of financial health into the domain of public health as a useful root term that underlies other individual measures of economic hardship and 2) demonstrate through outcomes on financial, physical and mental health among low-income caregivers of young children that the construct of financial health belongs in the canon of social determinants of health.

Trauma-Informed Financial Empowerment Programming Improves Food Security Among Families With Young Children.

Objective: To determine how trauma-informed programming affects household food insecurity (HFI) over 12 months.

Design: Change was assessed in HFI from baseline to 12 months in response to a single-arm cohort intervention. Measures were taken at baseline and in every quarter.

Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Are Associated with Food Insecurity and Poor Health.

This study examines the associations of mothers' experiences of discrimination (EODs) with household food insecurity (HFI), physical health, and depressive symptoms, while taking into account the influence of mothers' Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and public assistance participation. Mothers (N = 1372) of young children under age 4 who self-identified as Latinx, Non-Latinx Black/African American and Non-Latinx white answered questions for a cross-sectional survey in an emergency room in a large children's hospital in Philadelphia between 2016 and 2018. Logistic regression was used to model associations of EODs in specific settings with HFI, depressive symptoms, and physical health.