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...