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"Long Overdue": Nurse and Resident Physician Perspectives on Implementation of Dual-Handset Interpreter Phones in the Inpatient Setting

Patients with language barriers suffer significant health disparities, including adverse events and poor health outcomes. While remote language services can help improve language access, these...

Author(s): Maria E Garcia, Sunita Mutha, Anna M Napoles, Lev Malevanchik, Mia Williams, Leah S Karliner
Date: February 16, 2023

Paraprofessionals in California’s Behavioral Health Workforce

One in five adults in California had a mental illness in 2018-2019. Some 23.5% of these adults had unmet need for mental health services as did an estimated 64.5% adolescents with major depression....

Author(s): Janet Coffman, Irene Ornelas, and Amy Quan
Date: Feb 2023

Building the Future Behavioral Health Workforce: Needs Assessment

The County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA) is developing a 10-year strategic plan for strengthening the county behavioral health safety net workforce to meet the needs...

Author(s): Janet Coffman and Margaret Fix
Date: Feb 2023

Rollout of the Oral Health Literacy Toolkit in California: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Formative assessment of the rollout process of the California Oral Health Literacy (OHL) toolkit uses a mixed-methods approach. The OHL toolkit is an educational resource for dental professionals to...

Author(s): Christine Y. W. Hao, Karen Sokal-Gutierrez,Susan L. Ivey, and Kristin S. Hoeft
Date: January 31, 2023

Be Kind. Use Systems. Improve Care

Most people’s perspective of health care carries an expectation that patients will be treated with kindness and empathy by health care workers. However as rates of burnout among workers rise, empathy...

Author(s): Taressa K. Fraze and Sunita Mutha
Date: January 26, 2023

Linking Patient Safety Climate With Missed Nursing Care in Labor and Delivery Units: Findings From the LaborRNs Survey

This study aimed to explore the association of nurses’ perceptions of patient safety climate with missed nursing care in labor and delivery (L&D) units. We recruited nurse respondents via email...

Author(s): Jie Zhong, Kathleen Rice Simpson, Joanne Spetz, Caryl L. Gay, Jason Fletcher, Gay L. Landstrom, and Audrey Lyndon
Date: January 13, 2023

Eliminate the Buprenorphine DEA X Waiver: Justification Using a Policy Analysis Approach

Drug overdoses have reached a historic milestone of over 100,000 deaths in a single year, 75,673 related to opioids. The acceleration in opioid-related deaths coupled with stark health inequities...

Author(s): Katie Fitzgerald Jones, Monica O’Reilly Jacob, Joanne Spetz, Laurie Hailer, and Matthew Tierney
Date: January 9, 2023

Alzheimer’s Disease Services, Staffing, and Outcomes in Adult Day Health Centers

Increasing rates of Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) has resulted in greater reliance on adult day health centers (ADHCs) and their skilled workforce. Little is known about staffing in...

Author(s): Joanne Spetz and Jason D. Flatt
Date: January 6, 2023

Rural-Urban Prescribing Patterns by Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers in Older Adults with Serious Mental Illness

Older adults with serious mental illness (SMI) often have multiple comorbidities and complex medication schedules. Shortages of behavioral health specialists (BHSs), especially in rural areas,...

Author(s): Ulrike Muench, Matthew Jura, Cindy Parks Thomas, Jennifer Perloff, and Joanne Spetz
Date: November 30, 2022

Understanding California’s Community Health Worker/Promotor Workforce: Four Reports

In California, one of the most culturally diverse states in the country, health care must bridge cultural and linguistic divides to serve all communities equitably. As trusted community members with...

Author(s): Susan A. Chapman, Jacqueline Miller, Tim Bates, and Amy Quan
Date: November 22, 2022