Across the United States, people are experiencing a growing challenge rooted in a single, measurable factor: social disconnection. It shows up differently for each person—loneliness, emotional withdrawal, loss of motivation, or a gradual sense of distance from the people they once depended on. For many, these patterns are intensified by daily routines increasingly shaped by technology, social media, and AI-driven engagement.

Social care systems in aging services, behavioral health networks, primary care clinics, and community centers are being asked to respond to problems that are having profound medical/health related consequences. At the center of this challenge lies the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): the social, emotional, relational, environmental, and economic forces that quietly shape health long before an individual ever sees a clinician.

The result is a shifting landscape of social health that affects today’s older adults and is almost certain to affect future older adults even more profoundly. As these trends continue, communities need a simple, accessible, and reliable way to measure SDOH, understand risks early, and support individuals in taking meaningful steps to improve their wellbeing.

This is where the SDOH Social Health Assessment Approach enters the conversation.

A New Approach: Measuring Social Health Before Long-Term Harm Sets In

The SDOH Test is being developed as a national approach that allows individuals, caregivers, case managers, community health workers (CHWs), and healthcare systems to:

• identify levels of social isolation, loneliness, and disconnection,
• understand the behavioral and environmental factors influencing those results,
• see how technology-shaped habits may contribute to changes in social health,
• and receive tailored guidance to build healthier patterns over time.

Unlike traditional assessments—which tend to be brief checklists or medical screeners—the SDOH Test gives people a clearer window into their daily life, their routines, their relationships, and the patterns shaping how connected they feel.

This approach is not designed only for older adults who are already isolated.
It is designed for future older adults, meaning the generations now growing up in a digital environment that is fundamentally reshaping their relational habits.

If we intervene early—through awareness, measurement, and simple steps toward healthier connection—we can prevent far deeper challenges later in life.

Why This Matters for Aging Services Today

Organizations serving older adults—such as aging-in-place programs, Councils on Aging, AAAs, senior living communities, and health systems—are confronting a surge in social isolation needs:

• adults living alone without consistent social contact,
• caregivers overwhelmed by responsibility and emotional fatigue,
• individuals aging in place without a strong support network,
• adults who rely on technology for companionship rather than people,
• and soaring demand for screenings that help distinguish social needs from medical symptoms.

The SDOH Test responds to these challenges directly.

It can serve as:

1. A standardized social health screener

Clear enough for intake specialists and CHWs to use during home visits, wellness checks, or care-transition calls.

2. A health-promotion and goal-setting approach

After completing the assessment, individuals receive simple, personalized actions they can begin immediately—helping transform the assessment into a growth pathway.

3. A documentation and tracking resource

Scores can be used to show improvement over time—something funders, community programs, and healthcare partners increasingly require.

4. A proactive aging-preparedness approach

Younger adults can use the assessment to understand their relational and environmental risk factors, reducing long-term vulnerability before isolation becomes overly saturated in daily life.

5. A system-wide population health measure

Healthcare organizations can incorporate it into SDOH modules, annual wellness visits, CHW workflows, digital health platforms, and care-management pathways.

This dual function—as both screening and self-management approach—is rare and highly valuable.

Why Technology Makes This Work Even More Urgent

The goal of the SDOH Test is not to compete with technology or condemn innovation.
It is simply to recognize that technology now plays a major role in shaping social behavior, and those behavioral patterns can profoundly influence emotional and relational health across the lifespan.

For older adults:

• technology can create convenience but also disconnection,
• can offer stimulation but reduce in-person engagement,
• and can unintentionally replace routines that once maintained their wellbeing.

For future older adults:

• prolonged device habits may lead to relational skill gaps later in life,
• algorithmic engagement may replace self-awareness,
• and digital convenience may reduce resilience in moments when human support is essential.

By measuring the SDOH early—and offering intentional steps to strengthen social health—we can protect future older adults from inheriting preventable patterns of disconnection.

A Approach Designed for Individuals, Care Teams, and Communities

The SDOH Test is not limited to personal use.
It is intentionally designed to integrate into existing aging-service workflows.

For healthcare systems:

• pre-visit SDOH screening
• chronic care management
• transitional care planning
• population health dashboards
• behavioral health navigation

For case managers and CHWs:

• home visit assessments
• strength-based goal setting
• care plan monitoring
• referral pathways based on score results

For community agencies and senior programs:

• new member screenings
• isolation risk identification
• wellness check protocols
• grant-reporting metrics tied to program outcomes

This is a single approach that meets the needs of multiple sectors, making it cost-efficient and scalable.

Where Individuals Can Begin Today

A preliminary version of the assessment is available now:

https://oracleapex.com/ords/r/fmdev/tellegacy/survey

Completing the test offers immediate insight into one’s social health profile, and sharing the results with a loved one, caregiver, or case manager can jumpstart meaningful progress.

Looking Ahead

We are currently seeking collaborators and supporting organizations that share a commitment to strengthening social health, advancing equitable wellbeing, and preparing communities for the next generation of aging. This includes partners who prioritize innovative approaches to reducing isolation, organizations invested in community-based solutions that improve quality of life, groups focused on aging with dignity and independence, and funders who actively support practical approachs that enhance social determinants of health across populations. We welcome collaboration with teams who believe, as we do, that proactive measurement and accessible guidance can help individuals, families, and communities navigate an increasingly complex social environment with greater agency, connection, and clarity.

The goal is to build the SDOH Test with one core mission:
to help people understand and strengthen their social health long before disconnection becomes a crisis and to improve the current crisis.

For today’s older adults, it provides clarity, validation, and actionable steps.
For tomorrow’s older adults, it offers protection, foresight, and healthier relational habits for the future.
For care teams and systems, it offers a clear, consistent way to screen and support individuals with precision.

As social health becomes one of the defining public health needs of our time, approaches like this will play a critical role in helping communities stay connected, resilient, and well.