The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 1 7 security, access to transportation, employment, and education. Participants are to answer “yes” or “no” to each item on the questionnaire. According to Page-Reeves and colleagues (2016), the WellRx Questionnaire provides a feasible means of assessing patients’ social needs and thereby addressing those needs. Benefits to using the WellRx include that it is free of cost, questions are at a 4th-grade reading level, and it can typically be completed by a client individually without the help of a professional. A potential barrier is that it does not assess a wide range of SDOMH challenges. Lastly, Andermann (2018) conducted a scoping review of social needs screening tools and found that the focus on such screening has increased over time. Andermann suggested that health care workers take advantage of the existing means of assessment, and made a number of specific resource recommendations, such as the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (2019) and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2022). Addressing SDOMH Through Action Documenting and defining the needs of clients through assessment is the first step in addressing SDOMH. The next step is taking action through an integrated career counseling approach. An integrated approach may include consistent collaboration with other professionals, like medical doctors, nurse practitioners, social workers, probation officers, or case managers. Additionally, scholars like Andermann (2016) suggest integrated efforts such as ensuring social challenges are included in client records and shared with other professionals to best support care. For “particularly isolated and hard-toreach patients . . . [actions like] assertive outreach, patient tracking and individual case managers” may be helpful (para. 19). Another practical suggestion for beginning to address clients’ SDOMH challenges is adding an SDOMH assessment tool or specific SDOMH questions to an intake form that the client completes independently or during the intake session. Selection of specific questions can be derived from the data that displays community-level needs (e.g., systems-level advocacy through assessment). For example, if a community-level assessment found that public transportation was lacking, then transportation might be an important assessment question on the SDOMH screener. Another consideration specific for career counselors is that counselors are obligated by their code of ethics to take appropriate action based on assessment results (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014, Section E.2.b.). Appropriate action can include consultation and collaboration with other professionals within and outside of counseling and/or advocacy to address the SDOMH need. After establishing the need through assessment, it is important for the career counselor to support the client in understanding system-level challenges and to work to address SDOMH issues while simultaneously supporting employment needs. For example, a career counselor who determines that their client is struggling with food insecurity might address this issue in several ways. At the individual level, the counselor might print resources for local food pantries, assist the client in applying for SNAP benefits, and counsel the client on resources within the community to access food. They could establish a small food pantry within the office, collaborate with local restaurants to receive pre-packaged food that might otherwise be disposed of, or consult with local food pantries and free food kitchens to establish a mobile pantry and kitchen. At the systems level, a career counselor may build partnerships with local farmers to increase locations where fresh fruits and vegetables are available for little or no cost. Collaboration and consultation are imperative to addressing the complex needs of clients in rural communities who are both seeking career counseling and challenged by SDOMH issues. For example, as noted earlier, health care access and quality are major disruptors of employment, and addressing these challenges will afford benefits for employment. The career counselor can consider using interprofessional collaboration and telehealth to support the health care needs of their rural clients (Johnson & Mahan, 2020). Interprofessional collaboration is a practice in which health care providers from two or more professional backgrounds interact and practice with the client at the
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