In the United States, social services organizations provide a variety of services to individuals, especially the most vulnerable, including housing, nutrition support, life skills development, and disaster recovery. Increasingly, these organizations are partnering with the health care sector to collaboratively address patients’ needs at a systemic level.

A strong social services sector has always been vital to American life, especially in times of resource uncertainty. Despite significant growth in recent years, the social services sector faces an uncertain future. Although challenging, these trends are not especially dissimilar from trends the sector has consistently faced to varying degrees since the 1980s. Strategic adaptations that address these trends are already underway and reinforce the need for alignment of the social services sector with health care and public health.

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