Dr. Jie Chen, an associate professor in the School of Public Health’s Department of Health Services Administration, has received a $2.25 million National Institutes of Health RO1 grant to examine system-level care coordination and estimate how it impacts African American and Latino patients with mental illness.

The project, called "Effects of Hospital-Community-Public Health Integration on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health," will run between July 2017 and February 2022. 

As the nation grapples with the ongoing opioid crisis, the public health community had been working to expand access to much-needed treatment. But when opioid abuse coincides with mental illness -- as it often does -- less is known about the effect the dual diagnosis has on outcomes and what specialized treatment it might require.

State policies that rely only on treatment programs or on criminal penalties to help get pregnant women who use drugs into rehabilitation aren't as effective as those that use multiple approaches, according to new research from the School of Public Health.

After psychiatric hospitalization, follow-up appointments are key for helping patients re-acclimate to normal life, manage their medications and avoid readmission. But not all hospitals are successful at getting their patients to engage in follow-up treatment.

Associate Professor Jie Chen and doctoral student Ivy Benjenk examined two factors that can affect hospitals’ follow-up rates: the hospitals’ organizational structures and the neighborhoods they serve.

University of Maryland School of Public Health Professor, Amy R. Sapkota, will serve as an investigator on a five-year $10 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The grant was awarded to a team of University of Maryland researchers to help farmers in the Corn Belt navigate efficient water and nutrient use in order to increase crop production.