This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, pilot tests a novel community-embedded, technology-supported overdose response intervention that aligns medical care, public health, and social service systems to improve outcomes for persons following the experience of an overdose among people living in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, CA. The intervention proposes to dismantle the structural racism that channels marginalized communities into overburdened low-resource medical systems with limited capacity to address underlying health and social needs, and that excludes these communities from having a voice in how these systems operate.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the effectiveness of California’s CalAIM Medicaid Waiver program in integrating social service and public health organizations into Medicaid coordinated systems of care for individuals with complex health and social needs. CalAIM is designed to dismantle forms of structural racism by investing nearly $2 Billion in helping Medicaid health plans and medical providers forge stronger alliances with local social service organizations and public health agencies in addressing the complex health and social needs of Medicaid beneficiaries, including paying for nonmedical services needed by these beneficiaries.

This study tests how a transit system can enhance substance abuse treatment outcomes and reduce provider-level treatment costs for substance abuse amidst the opioid crisis in Connecticut. Increasing access and retention in treatment services is critical to improving health outcomes and reducing substance abuse overdose deaths. Using a difference-in-differences method, the research project will test how treatment costs differ before and after a new transit line and/or a change in transit service schedules.

Children affected by the opioid epidemic need a complex array of services and supports to safeguard their health and wellbeing, including child protective services, legal representation, educational services, comprehensive physical and mental health care, and often foster care placement coupled with family reunification strategies. Timely access to these services is especially difficult in rural areas. A research team led by Ohio State University will examine strategies that use regional, multi-sector governing boards to help organizations work together in coordinating services for children and families in rural areas.