Vu TT, Dario JP, Mateu-Gelabert P, Levine D, Punter MA, Borrell LN, Ngo VK. Alcohol Misuse, Binge Drinking, and their Associations with Psychosocial Factors during COVID-19 among Harlem Residents in New York City. J Urban Health. 2023 Jun;100(3):638-648. doi: 10.1007/s11524-023-00738-7. Epub 2023...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of California’s Whole Person Care (WPC) initiative in coordinating health and social services for Medicaid beneficiaries with complex needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects underway in 26 counties engage Medicaid health plans, medical providers, mental health agencies, social service organizations, and public health agencies in collaborative models of care and payment that target specific population groups with complex needs in each county, including people experiencing homelessness, those transitioning from incarceration, and patients with multiple chronic medical conditions.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, assesses the effectiveness of Continuum of Care homeless service networks (CoCs) in addressing health and social service needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic for populations experiencing homelessness.

This study tests an innovative model for preventing child maltreatment and adverse child experiences (ACEs) by aligning health and social services for vulnerable families in St. Louis. The Parents and Children Together - St. Louis (PACT-STL) initiative braids together services and funding streams from multiple sectors to assist families with children who are referred to child protective services (CPS) for first-time and low-severity problems.

This study tests the effectiveness of a global all-payer payment model combined with multi-sector community health teams in improving health and social outcomes for Vermont residents. The Vermont Blueprint for Health initiative is among the most ambitious statewide health financing reforms now underway in the U.S. The study uses quasi-experimental methods to estimate the reform's effects on relationships among health and social service organizations, access to needed health and social services, healthcare utilization and costs, and equity in health outcomes.

The prolonged activation of stress response systems among children responding to adversity such as homelessness, hunger, or neglect, is a predictor of poor health and continued poverty among low-income families. To study the health and economic impacts and systems implications of integrated services provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities, the principal investigators are evaluating the Building Wealth and Health Network (The Network) intervention, designed to reduce health inequities by aligning Medicaid coverage for behavioral health services and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) education and training services.

Lack of coordination of health and community services with individual agencies working in isolation leads to wasted resources and poor outcomes for the most vulnerable in our nation’s neighborhoods. One method of addressing this lack of coordination is by adopting a place-based system integration model where providers of services collaborate and work together to improve the health and well-being of the populations they serve.