Screen and Intervene: Meeting Social Needs for Children with Medical Complexity

In this Complex Care Journal Club podcast episode, Ms. Emily Johnson and Dr. Florence Gagné discuss a scoping review of interventions to assess social needs for children with medical complexity. They describe the different approaches to screening and intervention in the five included studies, implications for practice, and opportunities to engage social workers in research. SPEAKERS Emily Johnson, MSW, LICSW Clinical Social Worker Boston Children's Hospital Florence Gagné, MD Pediatrician Montréal Children’s Hospital HOST Kristina Malik, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Medical Director Pediatrician, Special Care Clinic‌‌ ‌University of Colorado School of Medicine KidStreet Children’s Hospital Colorado DATE Initial publication date: August 11, 2026. JOURNAL CLUB ARTICLE Johnson ER, Hadge SM, Wachter SM, Gagné F. Interventions to assess social needs for children with medical complexity and their families: A scoping review. Patient Educ Couns. 2026;148:109555. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2026.109555. OTHER ARTICLES REFERENCED Ming DY, Jones KA, Sainz E, Tkach H, Stewart A, Cram A, Morreale MC, Dizon S, deJong NA. Feasibility of implementing systematic social needs assessment for children with medical complexity. Implement Sci Commun. 2021 Nov 21;2(1):130. doi: 10.1186/s43058-021-00237-3. PMID: 34802465; PMCID: PMC8606226. TRANSCRIPT https://cdn.bfldr.com/D6LGWP8S/as/3sgvpf2qjsvt9zqxvf37xspz/Gagne_and_Johnson_Final_Transcript_8-3-26 Clinicians across healthcare professions, advocates, researchers, and patients/families are all encouraged to engage and provide feedback! You can recommend an article for discussion using this form: https://forms.gle/Bdxb86Sw5qq1uFhW6. Please visit: http://www.openpediatrics.org OPENPediatrics™ is an interactive digital learning platform for healthcare clinicians sponsored by Boston Children’s Hospital and in collaboration with the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies. It is designed to promote the exchange of knowledge between healthcare providers around the world caring for critically ill children in all resource settings. The content includes internationally recognized experts teaching the full range of topics on the care of critically ill children. All content is peer-reviewed and open-access thus at no expense to the user. For further information on how to enroll, please email: [email protected] CITATION Johnson ER, Gagné F, Malik K. Screen and Intervene: Meeting Social Needs for Children with Medical Complexity. 08/2026. OPENPediatrics. Online Podcast. https://soundcloud.com/openpediatrics/screen-and-intervene-meeting-social-needs-for-children-with-medical-complexity.