Elizabeth Horevitz

Bio: Elizabeth Horevitz is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: Health care & Mental health. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 6 publications receiving 252 citations. Previous affiliations of Elizabeth Horevitz include University of California, San Francisco.

Professional competencies and training needs of professional social workers in integrated behavioral health in primary care

Abstract: The Affordable Care Act has led to a widespread movement to integrate behavioral health services into primary care settings. Integrated behavioral health (IBH) holds promise for treating mild to moderate psychiatric disorders in a manner that more fully addresses the biopsychosocial spectrum of needs of individuals and families in primary care, and for reducing disparities in accessing behavioral health care. For behavioral health practitioners, IBH requires a shift to a brief, outcome-driven, and team-based model of care. Despite the fact that social workers comprise the majority of behavioral health providers in IBH settings, little research has been done to assess the extent to which social workers are prepared for effective practice in fast-paced primary care. We conducted a survey of social workers (N = 84) in IBH settings to assess the following: (1) Key competency areas for social work practice in IBH settings and (2) Self-rated preparedness for effective practice in IBH settings. Online snowball sampling methods were used over a period of 1 month. Results indicate that social workers feel prepared for general practice in IBH settings, but would benefit from additional training in IBH-specific competency areas identified in the survey. Findings can help guide social work training to improve workforce preparedness for practice in IBH settings in the wake of health care reform.

The Mexican Health Paradox Expanding the Explanatory Power of the Acculturation Construct

Abstract: The Mexican health paradox refers to initially favorable health and mental health outcomes among recent Mexican immigrants to the United States. The subsequent rapid decline in Mexican health outco...

Understanding the Anthropology of Immigration and Migration

Abstract: This literature review features the main theoretical frameworks from which modern anthropological immigration and migration studies have been conducted. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that immigration/migration became a high-priority area for anthropologists when they noted the high rate of rural-to-urban migration, particularly in Africa and Latin America. In featuring the processes of immigration and migration, this review highlights the major neo-classical theories related to dependency, world systems, and articulation and the transnational theories related to diaspora, border, and feminist perspectives. Anthropologists have made significant contributions to the interdisciplinary field of migration studies. The review concludes with implications for understanding human behavior and the social environment within the context of immigration and migration.

Examining Cultural Competence in Health Care: Implications for Social Workers

Abstract: This article examines and unpacks the "black box" of cultural competence in health interventions with racial and ethnic minority populations. The analysis builds on several recent reviews of evidence-based efforts to reduce health disparities, with a focus on how cultural competence is defined and operationalized. It finds that the use of multiple similar and indistinct terms related to cultural competence, as well as the lack of a mutually agreeable definition for cultural competence itself, has resulted in an imprecise concept that is often invoked but rarely defined and only marginally empirically validated as an effective health intervention. This article affirms the centrality of cultural competence as an essential values-based component of optimal social work practice, while also suggesting future directions for operationalizing, measuring, and testing cultural competence to build an evidence base on whether and how it works to reduce health disparities.

Depression Treatment Uptake in Integrated Primary Care: How a “Warm Handoff” and Other Factors Affect Decision Making by Latinos

Abstract: Objective:Integrated behavioral health care has the potential to reduce barriers to mental health treatment among low-income and minority populations. This study aimed to identify predictors of Latino patients’ decision to follow through with referrals to depression treatment in an integrated primary care setting, including type of referral (a “warm handoff” from a primary care provider [PCP] to a behavioral health care provider or a prescribed referral).Methods:The authors conducted a sequential medical record review of 431 patients referred for depression treatment in integrated behavioral health services followed by qualitative semistructured interviews with a subsample of 16 patients.Results:English-speaking Latinos were four times less likely to attend an initial visit within two months of a referral if they received a warm handoff rather than a prescribed referral. The strength of the patient-provider relationship and the quality of the referral experience, including whether the PCP addressed patien...

Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

Abstract: www.mobilehealthmap.org 617‐442‐3200 New research shows that mobile health clinics improve health outcomes for hard to reach populations in cost‐effective and culturally competent ways . A Harvard Medical School study determined that for every dollar invested in a mobile health clinic, the US healthcare system saves $30 on average. Mobile health clinics, which offer a range of services from preventive screenings to asthma treatment, leverage their mobility to treat people in the convenience of their own communities. For example, a mobile health clinic in Baltimore, MD, has documented savings of $3,500 per child seen due to reduced asthma‐related hospitalizations. The estimated 2,000 mobile health clinics across the country are providing similarly cost‐effective access to healthcare for a wide range of populations. Many successful mobile health clinics cite their ability to foster trusting relationships. Qualitative research in such mobile health clinics has found that patients value the informal, familiar environment in a convenient location, with staff who “are easy to talk to,” and that the staff’s “marriage of professional and personal discourses” provides patients the space to disclose information themselves. A communications academic argued that mobile health clinics’ unique use of space is important in facilitating these relationships. Mobile health clinics park in the heart of the community in familiar spaces, like shopping centers or bus stations, which lend themselves to the local community atmosphere.

The persistenteffect of raceandthe promise ofalternativestosuspension in school discipline outcomes

Abstract: article Demographic and student discipline data were used to examine the influence of multi-level risk and protective factors on exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Participants included all youth (n = 87,997) in grades K to 12 who were enrolled in Denver Public Schools (n = 183) in 2011-2012. The dataset included measures of risk and protective factors for exclusionary school discipline outcomes such as race, family poverty, special edu- cation status, emotional disability, participation in gifted and talented programs, homelessness, office referral reasons over the course of one school year, participation in in-school suspension, a behavior contract, or restor- ative approaches,and school composition.Multilevellogisticregressionmodeling wasusedtoestimate students' likelihood of receiving one or more office disciplinary referrals, suspensions, expulsions, and/or law enforcement referrals.Findingsindicatethatstudentracialbackgroundandschoolracialcompositionareenduringrisksacross key decision points of the school discipline process. Conversely, participation in restorative interventions and in-school suspensions protects students from out-of-school suspensions. This study suggests that ongoing atten- tion to issues of racial inequity in school discipline outcomes is warranted, and that restorative practices have potential as an inclusive strategy to improve school discipline outcomes without excluding students from the classroom.

Cultural competence and cultural humility: A critical reflection on key cultural diversity concepts:

Abstract: SummaryCultural competence has commanded respectable attention since its introduction in cross-cultural discourse. Cultural competence has been presented as a framework capable of promoting cultura...

The Cultural Politics of Nation and Migration

Abstract: Immigrant cultures are routinely posed as threats to national culture. Particular understandings of immigrant and national cultures underlie cultural politics. Culturalism—conceiving cultures as reified, static, and homogeneous across bounded groups—imbues these understandings. Representations of immigrant and national culture are mutually constituted in policies, state institutions, the media, and everyday perceptions surrounding key categories such as borders, illegality, and the law. Furthermore, coupled with a popular or commonsense structural-functionalism that sees all cultural values and practices as inherently interlinked, many modes of cultural politics are contextually stimulated by anxieties about cultural loss. At critical junctures, certain representations gain powerful roles in cultural politics through synecdoche, when specific symbols stand for an integrated set of cultural attributes. Examples include Muslim head scarves in France and the “ground zero mosque” in the United States. Anthrop...