Spring 2023 Tier 1 pilot awardees report final findings from funded projects

Documenting the Impact of Abortion Myths on Healthcare Providers and Advocates

Investigators
Anna Lee Swan, Information School
Amanda Lock Swarr, Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
Rachel Moran, Information School
Taylor Agajanian, Information School
Izzi Grasso, Information School
Andrew Beers, Department of Human-Centered Design & Engineering
Emma Spiro, Information School

Project summary
Abortion is a common and safe medical procedure with a long history of practice within the U.S. Yet, inaccurate and misleading information around abortion persists, including falsehoods about the accessibility and legality of abortion related healthcare, myths around long-term physical and mental impacts, and misleading descriptions of abortion procedures. The prevalence of inaccuracies has been exacerbated by the patchwork of state laws governing access to abortion in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in May 2022. Despite extensive documentation of abortion-related misinformation in online and offline spaces, and calls of concern from healthcare practitioners about such content, little academic research exists documenting and examining how misleading abortion information impacts the everyday work of healthcare providers and others working within abortion healthcare. Accordingly, this research project looked to address these current gaps to properly document the impacts of misleading information on reproductive healthcare providers.

The goals of this project were to:

1. Build a research agenda regarding the impact of misleading information about abortion healthcare on the work of healthcare professionals, provider-patient interactions, and individual knowledge about abortion healthcare.
2. Conduct a needs assessment via interviews with healthcare professionals and advocates to identify gaps and priorities for research into abortion related myths, particularly those amplified on social media.
3. Build partnerships between the UW Center for an Informed Public (CIP) and regional practitioners to facilitate broader projects exploring interventions to mitigate the impact of misleading information about abortion.

The research team conducted 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with abortion healthcare providers and advocates between October 2023 and January 2024. Interviewees were recruited through snowball sampling using email listservs and personal connections with researchers and practitioners in the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) medical region, plus neighboring state Oregon. Interviews followed a general outline with intentional space for participants to lead conversation in whatever direction they wanted. Questions pertained to experiences of misinformation within patient interactions, considerations of public knowledge around abortion healthcare and prominent myths and misconceptions, experiences of patient information-seeking online about abortion, and strategies interviewees deploy when they encounter misinformation in their patient interactions. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and lasted, on average, 45 minutes. Audio recordings were taken for transcripts to be obtained.

Researchers conducted a grounded thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. An initial team of four researchers used the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.TI to open code the full set of transcripts to identify initial themes and points of interest. The full research team then met and used visual collaboration software Miro to undertake a collaborative clustering activity in which researchers co-located similar codes, identified salient themes from the clusters, and discussed connections between clusters. A smaller group of researchers then used the results of the clustering activity to form the basis of a codebook which was used to code all 14 transcripts.

Emergent analysis highlights several themes related to abortion myths and how they impact patient-practitioner relationships. Notably we find that while healthcare providers see online sources as a major vector of abortion healthcare-related myths, practitioners do not feel confident that they are aware of the full scope of abortion-related myths circulating in their state. This is the result of individual hesitancy and/or lack of capacity to engage with social media discussions of abortion. Almost all interviewees highlighted a need to disengage from online spaces in which abortion-related discussion could occur, mostly to protect their mental wellbeing from the potential of harassment and from the emotionally draining nature of facing a barrage of abortion-related misinformation. Healthcare advocates, on the other hand, better understand the scope of local misinformation landscapes but don’t always have opportunities to engage with (potential) patients to effectively debunk myths. In addition, all interviewees pointed towards stigma as a motivating factor in misinformation spread and a major barrier to debunking myths. Stigma around abortion itself, around certain providers and organizations, notably Planned Parenthood, and even stigma within medical institutions, stifled the ability of practitioners to have open conversations with patients that could surface potential misconceptions. Further, when misinformation did arise within patient-practitioner conversations, practitioners believed that societal stigma around abortion decreased the likelihood that patients would accept corrections to misconceptions. Moreover, all interviewees suggested that motivational interviewing techniques are more effective than traditional fact-checking when discussing misleading abortion information with patients.

Overall, findings highlight a need for academic research to fill gaps in understanding of emerging abortion myths online and opportunities for interventions through the creation of motivational interviewing frameworks tailored towards the realities of the abortion healthcare information landscape.

Assessing for Violence Exposure and Other Health-Related Social Needs in Children by Pediatric Health Care Providers

Investigators
Anna Bender, Department of Pediatrics
Frederick Rivara, Department of Pediatrics
Anjum Hajat, Department of Epidemiology
Megan Moore, School of Social Work
Beth Ebel, Department of Pediatrics
Brian Johnston, Department of Pediatrics
Monica Vavilala, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine

Project summary
Through individual, semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of pediatric health care providers (e.g., pediatricians, ancillary support staff) across Washington, this study aimed to: (1) identify existing health-related social needs (HRSN) assessment processes and tools; (2) describe current facilitators and barriers to assessing for HRSN, particularly child exposure to violence (CEV); (3) understand follow-up care processes and resources for identified HRSNs; and (4) explore innovative strategies for effective, consistent HRSN assessment and follow-up care.

Following pilot testing of our interview guide and discussions with co-investigators, we connected with individuals across co-investigators’ professional networks in the State to recruit pediatric healthcare providers into this study. We also collaborated with the Washington State Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP) to share information about our study with clinic sites supported by legislative funding (ESSB 5693, Sec. 211 (103)) to embed community health workers into pediatric primary care clinics. We completed individual interviews with 35 providers across the State of Washington, including pediatricians, community health workers, and social workers. We have begun our analysis of the data, the preliminary findings of which are summarized below.

For Aim 1 findings, participants reported varied current practices for conducting HRSN assessments, including differences in the assessment tools used (e.g., standardized measures or clinic-generated questions), cadence of assessments, and assessment processes (e.g., self-administered by patient prior to visit or in conversation with providers).

In Aim 2, participants reported common facilitators and barriers to conducting HRSN assessments, primarily time and personnel constraints, the complexity of family needs, the need for improved measures, and the lack of adequate potential referral resources if a need was identified by families. Participants reported some unique barriers/facilitators related to their patient population (e.g., adequate interpretation services) and clinic (e.g., presence of community health workers to assist with assessments).

Across clinics for Aim 3, participants reported differing processes for addressing identified HRSN, including the personnel designated to connect families to HRSN services and resources, communication processes between providers, and processes to follow-up on any identified HRSN or suggested referrals.

In Aim 4, despite the barriers identified in Aim 2, participants consistently reported the value of HRSN assessments in pediatric primary care settings to ensure high-quality, holistic healthcare for children. Therefore, participants reported a range of innovative solutions to support the implementation of HRSN assessments in pediatric primary care settings, including the presence of community health workers or social workers in clinics and the development of novel measurement tools (e.g., those that also assess family strengths, pictorial screeners).

A Qualitative Study of the Psychological Costs of Citizen-State Interactions for Trans People

Investigators
Isaac Sederbaum, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Arjee Restar, Departments of Epidemiology and Health Systems and Population Health
Karin Martin, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Rachel Fyall, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Project summary
This project had three main goals, all which were met. The first goal was training an all-trans advisory board to aid in the research process. The team recruited and trained four people, who in turn helped to create the survey and interview protocols. The second goal was to conduct 50 interviews with trans adults. After a number of scheduling issues, we were able to complete 43 hour-long interviews, code them, and construct a codebook. The final goal was that this project would result in increased consideration of trans people in research and interventions aimed at reducing administrative burden. While the dissertation for investigator Sederbaum is not yet published yet, he has had multiple scholars contact him with interest in the work.

Analysis is currently on-going, but one key finding is that trans people are acutely aware of how street-level bureaucrats gatekeep needed services. As a result, many participants said they are willing to experience stress and stigma because the services they are applying for (SNAP, Medicaid, and/or Unemployment Insurance) as a necessity for their overall wellbeing.

A second preliminary finding is that trans people make calculated choices about how they present their gender when interacting with frontline workers. Many participants who had not yet changed the sex markers on their IDs shared that they would dress in accordance with their birth sex, rather than their gender identity. This choice was based on many decisions, including fear of being accused of fraud, denied the service they were applying for, and treated poorly for being trans.

Working Towards Prevention: Identifying Early Predictors of Risk for Schizophrenia in Diverse Youth

Investigators
Mahnoor Hyat, Department of Psychology
Jennifer Forsyth, Department of Psychology
Alison Fohner, Department of Epidemiology
Katherine Foster, Departments of Psychology and Global Health

Project summary
Behavioral and cognitive signs precede schizophrenia (SCZ) and SCZ polygenic risk scores (PRS) have been associated with cognition and mental health symptoms in European ancestry youth. The current project aimed to identify early behavioral markers of genetic risk for SCZ in youth with diverse ancestry. Specifically, we examined whether genetic risk for SCZ was linked to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functioning in childhood, and whether molecularly defined genetic risk provided information beyond what is gathered through parent-reported family history of SCZ. Our overarching goal was to develop a team well-poised to conduct population-health research and work towards the equitable application of genetics in mental health. In the long run, we hope that this project will help improve screening for elevated SCZ risk across diverse youth in healthcare settings.

To achieve this goal, we utilized data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (https://abcdstudy.org/), which is the largest, nationally representative, longitudinal study of child development in the US and includes genetic, behavioral, clinical, environmental and neuroimaging information on roughly 12,000 individuals. Our final sample consisted of 5,636 European, 2,093 African, and 1,477 Admixed American ancestry individuals (47.4% female; mean age=9.92 yrs). We computed PRS for SCZ for each individual, providing a molecular measure of genetic risk for the disorder, using PRS-CSx, a statistical tool that improves cross-ancestry accuracy of PRS. The SCZ-PRS were then normalized within ancestry groups and tested for associations with weighted measure of psychosis family history, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the NIH toolbox cognition battery (NIH-TB). We also examined associations of psychosis family history with CBCL and NIH-TB since family history has historically been used as a proxy of genetic risk as well. Lastly, we generated ultivariable models which included both risk measures, family history and SCZ-PRS, to identify any additive effects of considering both measures simultaneously. Covariates included sex, age, ancestry principal components, and genetic relatedness. False discovery (FDR) rate correction was used to determine significance and derive adjusted p-values.

Our current results show that, for European ancestry youth, greater family history of psychosis was significantly associated with elevated SCZ-PRS (p= 0.0047; p-adjust= 0.019). Greater family history of psychosis was also significantly associated with CBCL Total Problems and the eight subscales for all ancestries. On the other hand, higher SCZ-PRS was nominally associated with lower total NIH-TB cognition scores in European ancestry youth only, but this did not survive correction (p=0.011; p-adjust= 0.055). There were no significant associations between SCZ-PRS and the CBCL subscales in African or Admixed American ancestry children. However, higher SCZ-PRS was nominally associated with the CBCL Anxious/Depressed (p=0.018; p-adjust= 0.058) and Rule Breaking subscale in European children (p=0.0066; padjust= 0.055). Lastly, a joint model of psychosis family history and SCZ-PRS suggested that that these operate as largely independent risk factors for cognitive, behavioral, and emotional problems in youth. Results from this project will be presented in a research poster at the Society of Biological Psychiatry conference on May 11th.

SCZ-PRS associations with cognitive, behavioral and emotional deficits in youth were mainly observed in European ancestry youth. The lack of SCZ-PRS associations with CBCL & NIH-TB in African and Admixed American children could reflect lower PRS accuracy or limited predictive power of these antecedents in diverse ancestry. Future analyses will integrate social determinants of health and longitudinal assessments to help make sense of current findings. Additionally, the independent effects of family history and PRS in the joint model suggest that both of them offer unique insights and hence need to be considered in tandem for a holistic understanding of risk for SCZ.

Improving Public Health Surveillance and Communication for Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms in Washington State: A Pilot Study using Drone Technology

Investigators
Joey Teresi, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Tania M. Busch Isaksen, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Scott Meschke, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Gordon Holtgrieve, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

Project summary
Our primary project goal was to assess the ability of remotely piloted drones to detect harmful algal blooms (HABs) in a smaller-scale freshwater lake. To accomplish this goal, our primary objective was to use two different drone platforms equipped with high-resolution cameras to capture aerial imagery of Echo Lake in Shoreline, King County, Washington over the peak bloom season. Color band manipulation of the drone imagery was leveraged to estimate levels of chlorophyll a—the photosynthetic pigment found in all algae and cyanobacteria—as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass at the lake surface. Higher chlorophyll a concentrations are typically associated with higher amounts of phytoplankton biomass and act as an indicator for a potential bloom. Using linear regression, we tested ten vegetation indices against lake water samples collected for chlorophyll a validation. Our primary measure of success was to generate statistically significant correlations from the linear regression models to understand this application’s predictive value and overall feasibility.

Our secondary project goal was to document the needs of local agencies managing HABs to inform the creation of a drone-based data collection protocol. To this end, our secondary objectives were to: identify protocol user needs through informal key informant interviews with public health and water resource management agencies that routinely deal with HAB monitoring and response activities; and to create a drone-based protocol document. The resulting guidance document highlights the challenges associated with drone-based monitoring methods and provides insights for a program’s successful implementation, including optimal environmental conditions and drone flight parameters. Our secondary measure of success was to collaborate with local and state agencies for iterative feedback on its completion and to disseminate this deliverable to applicable agencies.

Between July and October 2023, a total of 26 unique drone flights were conducted, with 28 water samples collected and analyzed in duplicate over seven sampling events. The best estimates of chlorophyll a variation were provided by the Color Index of Vegetation Extraction (CIVE) index (R2 = 0.45, p < 0.001). The CIVE index has been applied in previous remote sensing studies to approximate algal biomass in small inland lakes and allows a reasonable estimation of lake chlorophyll levels using a relatively inexpensive, user-friendly, and time efficient drone monitoring tool. By increasing the frequency of flights, these drone platforms can supplement HAB forecasting tools and represent an improvement over limited shoreline visual inspections. These findings suggest remote sensing capabilities will help freshwater resource managers better anticipate the development of HABs and more rapidly communicate this environmental public health risk. In addition, we have engaged with representatives from the Washington State Departments of Health and Ecology, King County, Snohomish County, and the City of Shoreline to understand their HAB monitoring needs and limitations on drone use. We documented information on the logistics, costs, training, and optimal flight operation conditions (i.e., weather conditions, flight altitude) for successful implementation. For instance, a balance between image resolution and camera field of view affecting image stitching, determined by flight altitude, must be considered when imaging lakes. To this end, we have generated a guidance document for local practitioners.

Public Health Camp: Public Health Educators and Practitioners Partnering to Strengthen and Expand the Workforce

Investigators
Jenna van Draanen, Departments of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing and Health Systems and Population Health
Shayla Holcomb, Public Health – Seattle & King County

Project summary
The Public Health Camp (PH Camp) was organized and hosted by Public Health Seattle & King County (PHSKC) over 3 Full days of immersed career-connected learning for local high school students. This project was supported by various teams in PHSKC, undergraduate student interns and partners, the University of Washington School of Public Health, Washington Alliance for Better Schools (WABS), Seattle Jobs Initiative, and Best Start for Kids. We pulled together a cross-divisional project team and carefully crafted curriculum and work-site tours held over 3 days in August 2023.

PH Camp aimed to develop an academic-to-practice pipeline with early engagement of high school students who may not otherwise be inclined to consider careers in public health. We created this program to help grow a Public Health Ambassador community, promote public health careers, and support youth within King County. Our goals for this program included:

• To provide underrepresented/underfunded youth with access to Public Health careers and open pathways to professions
• To highlight the diversity of jobs within Public Health
• To humanize the work and inspire with passion
• To meet people where they are

From March to July 1st, 2023, we disseminated information about our summer camp opportunity to local high school students. We participated in several local career and community fairs, also sharing with school career counselors, with an emphasis on South Seattle and South King County school districts, encouraging youth from all backgrounds to apply. Our entry process asked youth to complete a simple electronic form. We had a total of 52 individuals complete our interest form and all were invited to complete the enrollment process. In total, 31 participants enrolled and 27 completed the program.

A survey tool was used to gather feedback on the planning process from everyone involved and indicated that a strong majority of people ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that meetings were facilitated effectively, each team member was involved in decision making, and that all necessary partners were included in the planning. A majority also ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that PH Camp reduced barriers for attendees, that campers were engaged during camp, and that PH Camp was a successful event.

Pre and post participant surveys indicated that most participants (25/27) left camp extremely (n=17) or somewhat (n=8) interested in public health and very (n=15) or somewhat (n=8) likely to pursue a career in public health. Every participant reported learning something new, every participant reported that their expectations were met or exceeded, and all participants were extremely (19/26) or very (7/26) satisfied with Public Health camp. When asked what they learned, most of the comments were related to learning about the diversity of career options and the topics included in the field of public health, as one camper said, “I learned about the plethora of jobs and opportunities in public health and what they do to keep our community safe!”

In terms of constructive feedback, participants said that they would like to have more breaks during Public Health Camp and they would prefer to spread the content out over a longer time period (e.g., 5 days instead of 3 days). Some participants also found it difficult to stay engaged in the sessions that were longer (>45 minutes with no activities) or had fewer activities.

An Assessment of Caregiver and Provider Level Barriers to the Implementation of National Sickle Cell Disease Clinical Guidelines

Investigators
Patricia Pavlinac, Department of Global Health
Alison Wiyeh, Department of Epidemiology
Arjee Restar, Departments of Epidemiology and Health Systems and Population Health

Project summary
Sickle cell disease (SCD) presents a major public health burden in Kenya, with approximately 14,000 children born annually with the condition. These children frequently experience severe health challenges, including frequent hospitalizations, chronic complications that severely impact their quality of life and an elevated risk of mortality before age five. The Ministry of Health of Kenya published the 2020 National Guidelines for Control and Management of Sickle Cell Disease in July 2021, but the dissemination and adoption of these guidelines remains limited. Critical challenges include limited awareness of SCD in both the general population and the healthcare workforce, significant knowledge gaps among HCWs regarding SCD management and constraints in diagnostic capacity and drug availability. Financial barriers and insufficient insurance coverage further restrict access to essential SCD services, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to improve outcomes.

This study examines the knowledge and skill gaps among HCWs and caregivers in managing children with SCD by identifying and prioritizing the challenges they face in implementing Kenya’s national clinical guidelines for SCD. Focusing on Homa Bay and Migori counties—two high-burden areas where our team also has close ties to key stakeholders—the study will provide a detailed assessment of the barriers and facilitators to effective guideline dissemination and adoption.

The study protocol was approved by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI): SERU No. 5161. Four Nominal Group Technique sessions were held in Migori and Homa Bay between 24th September and 27th October 2025 with healthcare workers, caregivers, and adolescents living with sickle cell disease. Sessions included both healthcare workers (n=6) and caregivers (n=6) in the same session (11 people per session in each of the two counties) to obtain multiple perspectives and reactions. The sessions focused on identifying and prioritizing barriers and facilitators to the dissemination and implementation of the 2020 national SCD guidelines and generating practical, actionable solutions to inform county- and national-level strategies.

From participants’ perspectives, the cost of care remains the most significant barrier to accessing SCD services. Drug shortages and limited diagnostic capacity persist across both counties. Patients and providers alike report a strong need for trained healthcare personnel, dedicated SCD clinics, integrated psychosocial support services and improved community awareness.

Participants highlighted the urgent need for multidisciplinary SCD care teams and better drug formulations to ease pill burden. Caregivers strongly advocated for SCD to be treated as a national priority, pointing to the HIV response as a model for coordinated, well-resourced care.

Participants recommended sustained NGT-style engagement forums to institutionalize caregiver and patient participation in SCD planning. Priorities in Homa Bay included targeted SCD training for healthcare workers and psychosocial awareness in schools, while caregivers in Migori emphasized the need for financial support mechanisms. These areas can be incorporated into future planning and stakeholder engagement.

The project highlighted key issues influencing the dissemination and implementation of the 2020 national sickle cell disease guidelines such as the cost of care, drug shortages, diagnostic gaps, knowledge and awareness gaps, limited psychosocial support and the absence of dedicated services. Participants also proposed solutions that included improving drug availability, increasing training for healthcare workers, strengthening psychosocial support, expanding screening, raising community awareness and creating dedicated SCD clinics. Together, these insights provide a clear roadmap for improving access, quality of care and outcomes for individuals living with SCD.

Incorporating Youth Perspectives to Improve Disaster Planning: Piloting Drone-Based Photovoice to Explore Cultural Assets

Investigators
Matias Korfmacher, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Urban Design and Planning
Nicole Errett, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
Daniel Abramson, Department of Urban Design and Planning
Resham Patel, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences

Project summary
This project piloted the use of drone imagery and video as inputs for the photovoice methodology. Photovoice, a well-established participatory action research method that has been used in public health and other fields since the late 1990s, uses images collected by participants to encourage critical dialogues about community concerns and amplify their voices to reach decisionmakers. By developing a process for drone-based photovoice (DBP) to engage youth in a community exposed to a high risk of natural hazards, this project sought to explore the benefits that emergent drone technologies offer the photovoice method, to identify the kinds of community assets (places, spaces or sites that provide or facilitate an important function for the community) that support youth disaster resilience, as well as to communicate these youth perspectives to decisionmakers. In pursuing these aims, we intended that our findings would contribute to improving post-disaster psychosocial health outcomes by identifying and planning around the places, spaces, and structures that make youth feel at home in their community (often called place attachment).

Project activities began with participant recruitment (eight youth in total) and data collection instrument design throughout the summer and early fall of 2023. With participant feedback, we designed a protocol for identifying community assets important to youth and documenting them from a low-altitude aerial perspective. We then adapted questions from Oregon State University’s Coastal Community Assets Survey Instrument to select sites to sample in and around the community of Westport, Washington (an area that participants later began referring to as “South Beach”). This adaptation anticipated future comparability with other communities and came out of discussions and collaborations through the Cascadia CoPes Hub. Based on the results from this site selection exercise and decisions in the field, we then documented 22 community assets. A majority of the cohort participated in a focus group discussion after viewing the compiled images and video, selecting three of the most important assets for a more in-depth discussion. We qualitatively coded the discussion’s transcript, identifying themes found across the assets related to their perceived importance. In addition, we included several evaluative questions about the use of drones in the process to further understand their strengths and weaknesses for photovoice.

On the process side, our findings suggest that DBP was effective at revealing spatial relationships between assets and the local geography, capturing the full scale of assets as could not be observed from the ground, providing additional details about the site that might not be visible at ground level, and providing a reference for change over time. Taken together, our findings suggest that a similar methodology may be useful in future community asset mapping projects, such as creating a community archive to document and assess change over time (particularly in hazard-prone areas).

When selecting and discussing important community assets, our participants consistently called the economic, cultural, and social cohesion functions that the assets provided. Furthermore, they frequently discussed that these assets were important because they contributed to their self-development and sense of autonomy. Having dense clusters of assets that could be accessed from school or home were especially important for participants given the difficulty that youth have with transportation in rural settings; participants called out transportation access and the lack of dedicated youth spaces as two gaps that affected their place attachments and therefore their long-term resilience to disruptions.

Our final aim — to provide guidance on incorporating youth perspectives into local disaster planning processes — resulted in recommendations that local planners leverage youth perspectives to identify new important assets, to explore additional dimensions of those already deemed important to the broader community, to align youth-specific needs with existing community planning to produce co-benefits, and to adapt DBP outputs for whole-community engagement. We saw this aim borne out through the creation of a geonarrative (an ESRI Storymap) co-produced with the cohort. Geonarratives combine narrative materials (e.g. text, images, and other multimedia content) with geospatial data and visualization techniques such as interactive maps or web apps; they are well-suited for complex spatial studies that incorporate numerous data types and center community perspectives. In this case, the geonarrative served as a framework for presentation to the Westport City Council in September 2024, where the youth shared a need for the development of a transit-accessible third-space (a social setting outside of school/work and home) to gather and build community. Westport City Council was receptive to this feedback, and suggested that there could be a future need for the youth cohort for outreach and planning around such a community center. Although this presentation closed out this project’s research activities, it also opened pathways for continued engagement with the community and with the youth participants.

A World Worth Living In: Exploring the Impact of Social Policies on Mental Health of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ Individuals

Investigators
Sarah Porter, School of Social Work
Zeruiah Buchanan, Department of Epidemiology
Megan Moore, School of Social Work
Anne Massey, Department of Epidemiology
Kelsey M Conrick, School of Social Work
Taylor Riley, Department of Epidemiology

Project summary
The primary aim of this project was to explore and characterize state-level social policies that peers identify as directly influencing the mental health of individuals seeking peer support services. The project involved two key objectives: (1) reaching a consensus on a typology of the most significant policies affecting mental wellbeing and peer service provision, and (2) developing a pilot database of 1-2 specific policy areas that peers believe to have a substantial impact on the mental health of their service users.

We invited 30 peers to participate in a four-round survey in the initial phase. Participants were not required to complete all rounds, allowing flexibility for involvement in later stages. Our first aim identified three critical categories of policies: (1) those harming mental wellbeing (e.g., expanding involuntary interventions and criminalizing housing instability or substance use), (2) those protecting mental wellbeing (e.g., peer-respite homes and reducing community-based service costs), and (3) those influencing peer service provision (e.g., state funding for peer services and service availability). These findings underscore the need for policy engagement that prioritizes community-driven perspectives in mental health policymaking.

For the second aim, we developed a tool for peer support specialists based on the results from Aim 1 and feedback from community advisors. The tool offers standardized information on certification logistics, peer respite funding and state-specific health outcomes across the five states included in our study. This resource was designed to assist peer support specialists with activities such as grant writing, enabling them to access and compare key data points for their state and others.