Section Vision Statement

To incorporate social context into the structure and practice of emergency care.

Section Objectives

• To promote the incorporation of patients’ social context into routine emergency care.
• To serve as a central organizing point for emergency providers interested in the interplay of the emergency care system and social forces affecting both patients and communities.
• To foster high-quality research and translate this research into best practices for the application of social determinants of health at the bedside and beyond.
• To disseminate emergency department (ED) interventions that improve population health through emergency care informed by community needs, with a focus on EDs that see underserved patients.
• To propose, evaluate, and critique health policies that affect the social determinants of health of our communities, especially as they pertain to marginalized and vulnerable populations that frequently present to EDs for their care.

Join the Discussion on engagED

Want to tap the expertise of your Social Emergency Medicine Section colleagues? This members-only community is the ideal place for networking, exchanging ideas and collaboration. There are two easy ways to participate:

• Log on to https://engaged.acep.org/home using your ACEP web credentials, select the Social Emergency Medicine Section community and start a new discussion thread.
• Send an email to the community. The address is:  ACEP_socialemergencymedicinesection@ConnectedCommunity.org

Questions about engagED?  Email Community Manager, Kelly Peasley.

Announce Podcast

Check out the announce podcast – developed by your very own SEMS members.  https://www.socialempact.com/announce-podcast. Listen to topics ranging from immigration, housing, firearm violence, and so much more!

Important News Articles

Can Social Emergency Medicine Give a Different Perspective on Community Health?

Social Emergency Medicine Conference Lays Foundation for the Field

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

AMA Backs UnitedHealth's Billing Codes For Social Determinants Of Health

Contact Us

For inquiries, questions, or comments about the section, please send an email to Loren Rives at lrives@acep.org.

Resources

Seminal Concepts in Social Medicine

• Inventing Social Emergency Medicine - conference proceedings
• Social determinants of health inequalities
• Structural violence and clinical medicine
• Narrative medicine
• Addressing SDH: a cliff analogy
• Allegories on race and racism

Need assistance connecting your patients to social services? Aunt Bertha’s network allows users to type in their zip code to identify verified social services in their area.

Teaching Materials 

• NEJM Case Studies in Social Medicine
• Social Medicine Consortium teaching toolkit
• IDHEAL

Organizations 

• Levitt Center
• Social Medicine Consortium

Opportunities 

• Fellowships 
  • UCLA Health Equity Fellowship
  • CHA/ HMS Emergency Medicine Health Equity, Policy, and Leadership Fellowship
  • Stanford
  • University of Iowa Social Emergency Medicine Fellowship
• Funding 
  • Robert Wood Jonhson
• Conferences 
  • Native American and Rural EM Conference

Resources in Key Areas of Interest 

• Alcohol Use Disorder 
• Community Referrals
  • United Way 211 Helpline - free, confidential referral and information helpline and website that connects people of all ages and all communities to the essential health and human services they need, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Gun Violence Prevention 
  • Affirm 
• Homelessness and Housing 
  • Urban Institute: Emerging Strategies for Integrating Health and Housing
  • Podcast on Homeless Patients and COVID-19
• Human Trafficking 
  • HEAL Trafficking
• Immigrant Health 
  • National Immigration Law Center Health Care Toolkit
  • Health and Law Immigration Solidarity Network Immigration Modules
• Incarceration
• Mental Health 
  • Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies 
• Opioid Use Disorder 
• Provider Bias
  • Project implicit- Implicit bias test
• SDH Screening in the ED
  • Siren social determinants screening tools