About Us

Duke University's Help Desk is a student initiative that partners with health care organizations to address their patients' unmet social needs through screening patients, referring them to community resources, and troubleshooting barriers to resource connection. Only 20% of a person's health is determined by healthcare, while 80% is determined by a mix of socioeconomic factors, the surrounding environment, and health behaviors, which are encompassed by the social determinants of health (SDOH). The SDOH are officially defined as conditions in which people are born, live, work, and grow. Help Desk aims to educate students about the SDOH, train a workforce of community resource navigators who help patients connect to resources for their social need, and create and share toolkits and training materials that other healthcare organizations and partners can use to replicate the Help Desk model.