“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do.” -President Barack Obama

Tomorrow, on the anniversary of the day in 1865 when the enslavement of African Americans truly ended in the United States, SIREN celebrates and honors African American culture, resilience, and contributions to our nation. As we are witnessing the active roll back of decades of progress on equity for African Americans, as well as other marginalized groups, and the intimidation, separation, and deportations of our immigrant neighbors and friends, it is a reminder that now more than ever, the liberation of marginalized communities are intertwined together. We hope Juneteenth reminds us all that progress towards justice is possible even in the darkest of times.

At SIREN, we've had a busy first half of the year. In case you missed it, here are some SIREN highlights below.

In February, we hosted our in-person 2025 SIREN National Research Meeting in San Diego, California.

Materials including recordings and slides from our February 2025 National Research Meeting are available on the SIREN website.

We released two Health Services Research Special Issues in April and May.

The SIREN podcast is back for the summer with 7 new episodes.

The SIREN podcast has returned for the summer season dropping every Wednesday through July 19 featuring discussions with experts on initiatives focuses on social care and advancing health and racial equity in the field. Subscribe on your favorite podcast channel including Apple and Spotify and be sure to listen to our newest episode that is dropping today featuring a discussion with state Medicaid leaders and other population health experts on innovative approaches to social care and planned evaluations.

Evidence for Action: Research to Advance Racial and Indigenous Health Equity
Evidence for Action has launched a new funding opportunity aimed at advancing racial and Indigenous health equity. New Research Support (due July 16th, 2025), funds community-driven projects that leverage the knowledge and expertise of historically marginalized racial and Indigenous communities to develop or test solutions for health equity. More details here.

Hunger to Health Collaboratory 2025 Prizes for Innovation
The Hunger to Health Collaboratory (H2HC) is calling for applications for its 2025 Prizes for Innovation. They will award two (2) $100,000 prizes to organizations advancing health equity in America for youth through food and nutrition policy change. New this year, in collaboration with Newman’s Own Foundation, they will also award four (4) $25,000 prizes to organizations working in nutrition education and school food and Indigenous food justice for youth. Applications are due July 1, 2025. More details here.

Webinars & Workshops

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine: Enhancing Care and Services for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders – July 1-2, 2025 | virtual

Systems for Action: An Aligned Delivery & Financing Model to Address Food Insecurity and Social Needs of Low-Income Pregnant Women – July 9, 2025 | 9am PT/ 12pm ET

Systems for Action: Integrating Health and Social Services through a Novel Independent Practice Association – July 16, 2025 | 9am PT/12pm ET

Meetings & Conferences

Camden Coalition: Putting Care At the Center Annual Conference – October 15-17, 2025 | Portland, OR

2025 PCORI Annual Meeting – October 21-22, 2025 | Washington, D.C.

Systems for Action: Lived Experience in Research | Yoga for Racial Trauma – Originally broadcast May 28, 2025

Systems for Action: Can California's CalAIM Medicaid Transformation Initiative Achieve Systems Integration? – Originally broadcast June 11, 2025 featuring SIREN Co-director Caroline Fichtenberg

Below we share multiple SIREN-relevant articles published since the last newsletter. For a full list, see the SIREN Evidence and Resource Library. As always, if you are aware of resources that you think should be added to the library, please send them our way.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Awareness

Patients' Perspectives About Sharing Information with Providers on Social Needs During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study Olvera RG, Melnyk H, MacEwan SR, et al. | BMC Health Services Research

A Qualitative Analysis of Patient Beliefs and Acceptability of Social Risk Screening in the Emergency Department Stillman K, Luna-Lupercio B, Caudill A, et al. | Journal of Emergency Nursing

Predictive Value of a Financial Strain Question to Pre-screen Individuals for Social Risks Tucher EL, Tran N, Gottlieb LM, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Integrating Adverse Childhood Experiences and Social Risks Screening in Adult Primary Care Gill I, Thompson-Lastad A, Ruvalcaba D, Gottlieb LM, Hessler Jones D | Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

A Health System-Wide Approach to Addressing Unmet Social Needs Among Children with Asthma Margolis RHF, Stringfield S, Brewer T, et al. | Hospital Pediatrics

Strategies Used by Emergency Department Clinical Champions to Sustain Improvements in Intimate Partner Violence Screening: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study Saberi E, Hurley J, Hutchinson M | Journal of Nursing Management

Differences Between Individual Social Risks, Social Needs, and Community-level Social Risk Among Pediatric Patients Pantell MS, Mosen DM, Tran N, Gottlieb LM, Banegas MP | Academic Pediatrics

Exploring the Routine Recording of Health-Related Social Needs in U.S. Acute Care Hospitals Park S, Hamadi HY, Abdul S, Spaulding A, Xu J, Zhao M | Health Services Insights

Critical Perspectives: Medical Social Workers' Early Insights on Health-Related Social Needs Screening and Follow-up DeVos TV, Thatcher E, Getz G, Nicks SE, Sieck CJ | Journal of Healthcare Management

A Narrative Review on Shifting Practice and Policy Around Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Screenings: Expanding the Role of Social Workers in Healthcare Settings in the U. S. Vohra-Gupta S, Petruzzi L, Cherian A, Chow C, Unzueta M, Joachimi R | Healthcare

Use of Social Determinants of Health Z Codes was Sparse, 2016-22 Aswani MS, Do LA, Shafer PR | Health Affairs

Physician Perspectives on Z Codes for Social Determinants of Health Screening Enich M, Tiderington E | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Assistance

An Electronic Health Record-Based Platform for Social Needs Assessment and Navigation Services: Preliminary Results of an RCT Hatef E, Richards T, Hail S, et al. | AJPM Focus

Barriers and Facilitators to the Implementation of a Health-Related Social Needs Screening and Referral Intervention in the Bronx George PE, Haughton J, Whiskey R, Levano S, Muleta H, Fiori KP | Journal of Primary Care & Community Health

Enhancing Cancer Care Through Digital Social Care Referrals: Insights from the ConnectedNest Pilot Study Haynes D, Trempe E, Iwan A, et al. | Supportive Care in Cancer

Legal Issues and Outcomes of a Medical-Legal Partnership for Cancer Patients Dowling AB, Sweeney A, Gordon ME, et al. | Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

Addressing Food Insecurity: A Paediatric Academic Advocacy Collaborative Quality Initiative Amati JBA, Mehta S, Buitrago Mogollon T, et al. | BMJ Open Quality

Pediatric Produce Prescription Program Grounded in Community Connection Improves Food Security and Fruit Intake in Hawai’i Esquivel MK, Shelton C, Higa A, Ahn HJ, Okhiro M | AJPM Focus

Gaps, Successes, and Opportunities Related to Social Drivers of Health from the Perspectives of Black Preterm Infant Caregivers: A Qualitative Study Karvonen KL, Anunwah E, Gilmore S, et al. | Journal of Pediatrics

Participant Needs, Service Utilization, and Costs in a Medicaid Housing Pilot Program Gill M, Craigie A, Holtorf M, Gronowski B, Livingston CJ | JAMA Network Open

Patient perspective of care

Focus Groups Reveal How Threat Vigilance Hinders Social Needs Screening and Referrals in the Emergency Department Bybee G, Tedford J, Grigorian G, et al. | Frontiers in Communication

From Screening to Support: Exploring Patient Engagement with Health-Related Social Needs Services Luther BL, Bybee SG, Elmore CE, et al. | AJPM Focus

Alignment

Help Us Document What We Already Do: Pilot Study of Clinical Decision Support Tools Targeting Social Risk-Informed Care Pisciotta M, Morrissey S, Bunce A, et al. | JAMIA Open

Commentaries & Blogs

Rescinding Health-Related Social Needs Guidance Undermines Trump’s Own Economic Goals Prasad J | Health Affairs Forefront

Approaching Ethical Challenges at the Intersection of Medical and Social Care Taylor L, Peek ME, Gottlieb LM | Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

We Need Better Data to Measure the Value of Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Neuman T, Fuglesten Biniek J, Freed M | Health Affairs Forefront

It's Time for Health Care to See the Humanism in Housing Thorndike AL, Hinami K, Chin MH | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Precision Social Care Delivery Sandhu S, Liu M, Gottlieb LM, Manchanda R | Annals of Internal Medicine

Understanding Hospitals as Sites of Care That Address Social Needs-Why It Matters McLemore MR | JAMA Network Open

Associations Between Unconditional Cash Transfers and Postpartum Outcomes in the United States: A Systematic Review Choudhry SA, Brédy GS, Cruise C, et al. | Annals of Internal Medicine

See accompanying commentary here