On Grandparents Day, September 13, 2026, I officially launched the Social Determinants of Health Toolkit. Today, I am incredibly excited to say: the book is available now.
This is a book I wanted to put into people’s hands.
Into classrooms.
Into healthcare organizations.
Into community programs.
Into the hands of social workers, case managers, caregivers, public health professionals, educators, students, community leaders, researchers, and families.
Because Social Determinants of Health ultimately concern something deeply human:
What surrounds a person’s health—and what we can do about it.
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Why I Wrote This Book
For years, my work across healthcare, aging, education, community programs, and intergenerational initiatives has continually brought me back to the same realization:
Health makes more sense when we understand the life surrounding it.
Consider two people with the same diagnosis.
One has reliable transportation, stable housing, financial security, nearby family, nutritious food, strong relationships, and easy access to healthcare.
The other is worried about rent.
Transportation is unreliable.
The nearest family member lives hours away.
Healthy food is expensive.
Appointments compete with work or caregiving responsibilities.
Social connection matters are top priority.
Clinically, these two people may share a diagnosis.
Their pathways toward health can look profoundly different.
It’s where Social Determinants of Health become essential.
SDOH gives us a framework for understanding the social, economic, environmental, and community conditions surrounding health. Healthy People 2030 organizes these determinants into five major domains: economic stability; education access and quality; healthcare access and quality; neighborhood and built environment; and social and community context.
These aren’t abstract categories.
They are everyday life.
The Question Is What We Do With What We Know
Awareness of SDOH has grown tremendously.
That is important.
But awareness needs somewhere to go.
How do we recognize barriers?
How do we discuss them respectfully?
How do organizations assess community needs?
How do we translate information into programs?
How do we connect people with resources?
How do we strengthen partnerships?
How do we measure progress?
How do we incorporate SDOH into healthcare, education, funding proposals, community programs, research, and policy?
Those are action questions.
And that is why I created a toolkit.
What Is the Social Determinants of Health Toolkit?
The full title is:
Social Determinants of Health Toolkit: Maximize Your SDOH Scores for Stronger Community Impact, Improved Patient Outcomes, and Sustainable Health Equity.
It is designed as a practical, accessible resource for understanding the conditions that influence health and translating that understanding into meaningful action.
Readers will find frameworks, strategies, real-world tools, case examples, and practical approaches for assessing and improving SDOH; strengthening community impact; developing cross-sector collaborations; navigating funding and policy environments; and integrating SDOH thinking into healthcare and community settings.
I wanted the book to be useful whether someone is encountering SDOH for the first time or already works in a field where these issues appear every day.
Who Should Read It?
Healthcare Professionals
For physicians, nurses, therapists, care managers, and other healthcare professionals, SDOH can help reveal what happens between appointments.
A treatment recommendation is only part of the picture.
Can the person get there?
Can they afford what has been recommended?
Is their home environment supportive of recovery?
Do they understand how to navigate the system?
Are there cultural, financial, transportation, caregiving, or social barriers affecting follow-through?
And perhaps one of the most important questions:
What matters to this person?
The toolkit provides a practical framework for bringing those realities into how we understand health.
Social Workers, Case Managers, and Community Health Professionals
You are often working precisely where healthcare and everyday life meet.
Housing.
Transportation.
Food access.
Financial strain.
Caregiving.
Social isolation.
Community resources.
Healthcare navigation.
Family systems.
The toolkit provides another resource for connecting those individual circumstances with the broader SDOH framework—and considering how assessment can lead to meaningful response.
Public Health and Community Leaders
Communities already possess tremendous assets.
The challenge is often connecting those assets effectively.
SDOH work can require collaboration among health systems, government agencies, nonprofits, universities, aging organizations, faith communities, transportation systems, housing organizations, businesses, and residents themselves.
The book explores ways to think systematically about those connections and turn community knowledge into coordinated action.
Educators and Students
I especially want this book in classrooms.
Future healthcare and public health professionals should enter their careers understanding that health extends well beyond anatomy, diagnosis, and treatment.
A student’s ability to understand the circumstances surrounding someone’s health can influence how that future professional communicates, designs programs, conducts research, develops interventions, and serves communities.
SDOH belongs in the education of the next generation of professionals.
Caregivers, Families, and Everyday People
You do not need a healthcare title to understand SDOH.
You already live within them.
Think about your own life.
Where do you live?
Who can you call when something goes wrong?
How easily can you reach healthcare?
What resources exist nearby?
What opportunities were available through education?
How secure are housing and finances?
How connected do you feel to other people?
These questions reveal something important:
Our health stories are connected to our life stories.
Why Launch on Grandparents Day?
There was meaning behind that choice.
My work and research have been largely moved by aging, intergenerational connection, and the extraordinary things that happen when generations have opportunities to learn from one another.
Grandparents Day represents continuity.
Wisdom moving between generations.
Stories being preserved.
Communities remembering where they came from while considering where they are going.
Health works across generations too.
The opportunities we create today influence the lives people experience tomorrow.
That makes Grandparents Day an especially meaningful moment to put this book into the world.
A Simple Example of Why SDOH Changes the Conversation
Imagine an older adult repeatedly misses medical appointments.
We could stop at:
“The patient isn’t following the care plan.”
Or we could become curious.
Maybe she stopped driving last year.
Maybe public transportation does not reach her neighborhood.
Maybe her daughter previously drove her but recently moved.
Maybe rideshare technology feels unfamiliar.
Maybe every trip requires deciding whether the appointment is worth the transportation expense.
Now we have a different problem.
And because we understand the problem differently, we have different possibilities for solving it.
This is one of the most powerful things SDOH gives us:
context.
I Want You to Use This Book
I did not write the Social Determinants of Health Toolkit to sit untouched on a shelf.
Write in it.
Bring it to meetings.
Use it when designing programs.
Assign it in a course.
Discuss it with students.
Give it to your team.
Reference it while developing a community initiative.
Use it when thinking through a funding proposal.
Share it with someone entering healthcare.
Bring its questions into conversations about aging.
Give a copy to a caregiver.
Challenge your organization to consider which determinants it currently addresses well—and which ones deserve greater attention.
Then take something useful from the book and put it into practice.
The Book Is Available Now
If your work touches healthcare, aging, public health, social services, education, community development, caregiving, research, policy, or the well-being of other people, I wrote this book with you in mind.
Choose the edition that works for you:
KINDLE
PAPERBACK
HARDCOVER
FREE SDOH WORKBOOK + BOOK RESOURCES
Visit the Official SDOH Toolkit Book Page →
Bring the SDOH Toolkit to Your Organization
I also want this work to travel beyond individual readers.
If you represent a:
- University or academic program
- Healthcare organization
- Public health department
- Aging organization
- Professional association
- Community-based organization
- Conference
- Workforce development program
- Caregiving organization
and you are interested in bulk books, presentations, workshops, trainings, partnerships, or bringing SDOH programming to your organization, I would be glad to hear from you.
Contact: jeremy.holloway@tellegacy.com
One Last Thing
Behind every health statistic is a person.
And around every person is a life.
A neighborhood.
A family.
A culture.
A financial reality.
A history.
A set of opportunities.
Relationships.
Strengths.
Challenges.
Dreams.
And a story that deserves to be understood.
That’s why Social Determinants of Health matter.
The Social Determinants of Health Toolkit is officially here.
I am tremendously excited to place it in your hands.
Get your copy. Share it. Teach from it. Talk about it. And most importantly—use it.
Let’s put SDOH into action.
