Posts

Vestal on History of L.A.’s Black Homelessness Crisis

/0 Comments/in /by

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Mark Vestal spoke to LAist about the role of racial inequity in the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. Vestal co-authored the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy report “Making of a Crisis: The History of Homelessness in L.A.,” which explored the history of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, starting with the Great Depression and leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Black unhoused people are one of the largest groups facing homelessness in Los Angeles, and Vestal pointed out that the long history of racist housing policies has led to a discrepancy in homeownership among Black residents. “Black folks were segregated in inner cities and subject to predatory mortgage markets and home-buying schemes that continued to suck Black dollars and wealth from bank accounts for decades,” Vestal explained. Lack of federal support and mental health crises have exacerbated the issue of homelessness, he said.

Read the article
Read the full report

Astor on ‘Tsunami of Mental Health Needs’ in Schools

/0 Comments/in /by

A Reuters article on signs that the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic are worsening gun violence in American schools included insights from Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor. Since the 2021-22 school year began, campuses have been the site of 141 shootings, more than at any point in the previous decade, gun safety advocates say. Astor said several factors, including the pandemic, overall community violence and breakdowns in family structures, have created a “tsunami of mental health needs” in schools. In many places, burnout, staffing shortages and illness have left teachers and administrators ill-equipped to deal with the challenges. “Kids are walking into a system that has been massively weakened,” Astor said. “We’re going to see a variety of different forms of gun violence and violence in general. We’re in a situation where things are going to get worse.”

Read the article

 

Shah, Bau Investigate Lockdown Impact on Female Mental Health

/0 Comments/in , /by

Professor of Public Policy Manisha Shah and Assistant Professor of Public Policy Natalie Bau co-authored an article in Ideas for India about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in India. Researchers conducted a large-scale phone survey across six states in rural north India to better understand how lockdown measures contributed to economic instability, food insecurity, and declines in female mental health and well-being. Bau, Shah and their co-authors found that strict lockdown measures, while necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 infection, contributed to economic and mental distress, especially in low-income settings with limited safety nets. Gender norms and low availability of mental health services made females especially vulnerable. For example, roughly 30% of the female respondents reported that their feelings of depression, exhaustion, anxiety and perception of safety worsened over the course of the pandemic. The authors recommended that policymakers target aid, particularly access to food, to vulnerable households and women.

Read the article

Cohen on Social Impact of Psychiatric Medication

/0 Comments/in /by

Professor of Social Welfare David Cohen joined the podcast “Courageously.U” to discuss mental health, medication and involuntary confinement. Despite advances in scientific research and medication, most indicators show that the burden of mental health in society has worsened in the last few decades. “Mental illness is not like any other illness,” Cohen said. “We don’t [actually] know what a balanced brain is.” As a 21-year-old clinical social worker, Cohen became interested in the social impact of psychiatric medication, including how medication contributes to stigmatization and stereotypes. “Besides being a scientific failure, the mental health system is a runaway commercial and cultural success,” he said. He explained that there is not enough research available on the side effects and consequences of psychiatric medication, especially in children. “Drugs sedate and quiet people, but we still don’t know if we are curing anything or even treating anything,” Cohen concluded.

Listen to the podcast

Cohen Highlights Trauma of Involuntary Commitments

/0 Comments/in /by

Research by Social Welfare Professor David Cohen was cited in a Cut article about the legal consequences for individuals deemed mentally ill in the United States. Britney Spears’ conservatorship has highlighted the way that psychiatric diagnoses can be used to strip individuals of their rights to voting, medical decision-making, financial decisions and more. Cohen’s research shows that patient privacy laws and lack of data collection pertaining to human rights violations of the mentally ill make it difficult to estimate exactly how many people have experienced involuntary commitment. Last year, a study by Cohen found that involuntary commitments over the previous decade outpaced population growth three to one, and another estimate extrapolated that over 1 million Americans a year are involuntarily committed. “This is the most controversial intervention in mental health — you’re deprived of liberty, can be traumatized and then stigmatized — yet no one could tell how often it happens in the United States,” Cohen said.

Read the article

Keum on Asian American Masculinity and Mental Health

/0 Comments/in , /by

In a Washington Post article, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Brian Keum discussed the mental health and body image of Asian American men who face stigma and stereotyping. While there has been a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Keum noted that “the constant invalidation of being overlooked and ignored” is a more subtle everyday violence that affects Asian Americans professionally, politically and socially. Keum explained that Asian American men are aware of “the stereotype of being emasculated, effeminate, less attractive, less manly, falling short of the white hegemonic masculinity ideal in the United States,” which negatively affects their psyche and body image. Without healthy outlets, Asian American men cope with shame on their own, sometimes through substance abuse, suicidal ideation, aggression or risky behavior, he said. An emerging network of Asian-focused mental health support programs aims to address stigma and promote mental health and well-being among Asian American men.

Read the article

Weisburst on Impact of Police in Schools

/0 Comments/in /by

Assistant Professor of Public Policy Emily Weisburst was mentioned in an Axios article about the presence of police officers on school campuses. Some school districts are considering replacing campus police officers with improved mental health services after studies have shown that Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately affected by disciplinary action in schools, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. Weisburst’s research also found that disabled students are disproportionately affected negatively when police or school resource officers rather than teachers and administrators maintain discipline. In her 2019 paper “Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long-Term Education Outcomes,” Weisburst found that school police presence was associated with a decrease in both high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates. Her analysis also confirmed that Black students experience the largest increases in discipline when police are on campus. Weisburst and others recommend increasing funding and quality of mental health services for students.

Read the article
Read the full report

Cohen Highlights Gaps in Psychiatric Hospitalization Data

/0 Comments/in /by

Professor of Social Welfare David Cohen was cited in a MedPage Today article about knowledge gaps in literature surrounding youth psychiatric admissions. A recent study in the United Kingdom found that youth with certain mental health diagnoses, including substance abuse and intellectual disability — as well as youth who were Black or of an older age group — were more likely to experience involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. However, data on youth mental health treatment and hospitalization in the United States is lacking and often not available to researchers. Laws on involuntary psychiatric holds for children and teenagers vary by state. Cohen pointed out that of the 25 states in the U.S. that have publicly available data on psychiatric commitments, only five states have released any data on youth. Collecting and sharing more data on psychiatric treatment and hospitalization of minors is recommended to better understand the impact of these detentions and the populations they affect most.

Read the article

Astor on Protecting Children as They Return to Classroom

/0 Comments/in /by

Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor spoke to K-12 Dive about concerns surrounding the safety and well-being of students as they return to the classroom following a year of living through COVID-19. In addition to pandemic-related stressors, students have witnessed enormous racial and political upheaval, creating “a swirl of different variables that make me really worried,” Astor said. “Kids are coming in with suitcases of really horrible experiences.” Bracing for an increase in threats of violence and self-harm, many school administrators have prioritized physical and mental health rather than nosediving into academic recovery. Astor called on principals to create a welcoming place for students and a supportive environment for teachers. “At least for this year, the next year and the year after, our school is not only about academic achievement,” he said. “We are going to go out of our way to [build] social-emotional friendships, so that our school becomes the ideal of what we hope society to be.” 

Read the article

Holloway on Pandemic’s Impact on Gay Social Life

/0 Comments/in /by

A Daily Beast article about the impact of the pandemic on gay communities cited research by Ian Holloway, director of the Hub for Health Intervention, Policy and Practice at UCLA Luskin. Stay-at-home orders resulted in the closing of many gay bars and other social spaces for LGBTQ individuals. Holloway was the lead author of a study that surveyed 10,000 gay men in 20 countries about their mental health and use of social networking during the pandemic lockdown. The study found that those who only left their homes for essentials during the first COVID lockdowns were 37% more likely to feel anxious than those who didn’t, and 36% more likely to feel lonely. It’s important to remember that gay men “come to this pandemic with disproportionate rates of mental health issues,” said Holloway, an associate professor of social welfare. Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is allowing some businesses to reopen, but no one knows when bars and nightclubs will return to normal.

Read the article
Read the full report