Center in the News

A new study from the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles finds that adults who identify as Black and at least one other race are more likely to need mental health services than those who identify only as Black.

California adults who identify as Black and at least one other race or more likely to need mental health services than those who identify as Black, according to a study published today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Dr. Imelda Padilla with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research says social media impacts young LGBTQ+ people, making them more vulnerable to risk factors of suicide ideation.

The first step is the definition. The next step is utilization," said D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto, PhD, MPH, a research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, who helped craft the definition. "Research and evidence-based practices, or EBP, are primarily developed for English-speaking children and don't capture children speaking other languages and other cultures," explains Padilla-Frausto. "If that's how EBP are decided, are we capturing the needs of other groups?

"It's a very clear, direct line," said Imelda Padilla-Frausto, a research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. We were actually seeing, in real time, people losing their jobs or their incomes or having their lives disrupted in other significant ways, and seeing how all of that contributed to their stressors and resulting poor mental health.

Mental health recovery from the pandemic begins when equitable policies are made to address the social and economic crises of the pandemic," Padilla-Frausto said, adding that the pandemic's effects on mental health and on people's social lives and personal relationships will be felt for years to come.