Kietzman currently leads a California Health Interview Survey study to assess population-level need for, and access to, long-term services and supports in California. Other recent studies include an evaluation of how older adults with serious mental illness are served through California’s public mental health delivery system, and an investigation of how dual eligible health care consumers (i.e., those insured by both Medicare and Medi-Cal) access and use information to make decisions about their health care options. Kietzman also recently evaluated efforts to increase the use of clinical preventive services among the underserved 50+ population in South Los Angeles through multi-sectoral collaboration and enhanced linkages between community and clinical settings.
Prior to joining the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Kietzman was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in the office of United States Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. A former member of the Board of Directors for the American Society on Aging, Kietzman currently serves on the Executive Board of the Center for Health Care Rights (the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program for the City and County of Los Angeles), is a member of the Commission for the Senior Community in the City of Santa Monica, and a member of the California Master Plan for Aging Research Subcommittee.
Kietzman earned her doctorate in social welfare from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs where her dissertation research was supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She completed both bachelor and master degrees in social welfare at UC Berkeley.
Researchers share study recommendations on how state policymakers, institutions, and county mental health/behavioral health departments and contracted providers can help improve state’s geriatric mental health care workforce and ensure that mental health care training that addresses the unique needs of older adults is a priority.
According to a 2010 study by UCLA Professor Imelda Padilla-Frausto, seniors in California need incomes at least twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. And it wasn’t until 2019 that low-income seniors and people with disabilities in California became eligible to receive food stamps from CalFresh.
UCLA Professor Kathryn Kietzman, who studies health equity, said the great thing about free meal programs funded by the federal Older Americans Act is that there are fewer barriers to eligibility. Seniors with incomes just above the poverty level often don’t qualify for public programs but have needs that they can’t fulfill without help, she said. These struggling middle-income seniors, whom Padilla-Frausto calls the “hidden poor,” may be forced to choose “between how much food they get every month and how much medication they’re able to get every month,” said Kietzman.