Written by: Center for Care Innovations

In the summer of 2017, Petaluma Health Center (PHC) was selected by the Center for Care Innovations to participate in Roles Outside of Traditional Systems, or ROOTS, a one-year learning collaborative focused on the role of clinics in addressing patients’ adverse social determinants of health.

In early 2017, PHC started screening patients for social risks using PRAPARE, a social needs screening tool developed by the National Association of Community Health Centers, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, and the Oregon Primary Care Association. Employment needs was found to be a top issue affecting PHC patients. With the ROOTS grant, PHC saw an exciting opportunity to strengthen their PRAPARE implementation and foster strategic partnerships to develop job training and employment services for under- or unemployed patients.


The following case study was prepared by the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) at the University of California, San Francisco.