Funded Projects

Problem:

Adolescents and young adults' (AYA) health needs require an interdisciplinary work force that is responsive to emerging problems and provides innovative approaches to help young people succeed as they transition to adulthood. A shortage of trained professional and inequitable systems, compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, have disrupted access to care and led to an increase in mental/behavioral health problems. Skilled leaders can improve systems, expand the workforce, and facilitate collaboration across sectors. Based in California with a diverse & underserved population, our leadership training project provides an ideal training site to develop leaders who will be able to respond to emerging issues.

Goals and Objectives:

Our goals & objectives are to: (1) Recruit and train diverse trainees to become AYA health leaders across the 5 core MCH disciplines & Public Health who can improve the quality of care and equitable access to services; (2) Develop & implement an interdisciplinary leadership curriculum; (3) Strengthen the capacity of clinical and non-clinical systems to improve AYA health through coordination and collaboration of technical assistance (TA), continuing education (CE), using technology and expanding partnerships with systems that care for underserved AYAs; (4) Advance delivery of equitable evidence-based health care to AYAs through: building trainees' skills in delivering quality clinical care to diverse AYA populations; enhanced engagement with diverse communities & collaboration with institutions that serve under-represented AYAs; and addressing emerging issues.

Methodology:

We shall train at least 11 long term trainees, 137 medium term and 198 short-term trainees each year through a core curriculum driven by an Individualized Development Plan, the Life Course Model, based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Expanded collaboration/coordination engages MCH and other partners to improve local, state, regional and national systems, through TA & CE using technology to expand our reach. UCSF and community-clinical sites provide opportunities to develop clinical skills and test and expand models to expand equitable systems of care, buttressed by enhanced collaboration with minority serving institutions and translation of research into practice. Expanding DEI is integrated in all project activities. AYAs and their families are actively engaged throughout design, planning and implementation of all project activities.

Coordination:

We work with MCH partners at the university, local, state, regional and national level (including the AYA Health National Capacity Building Program, the AYA Health Research Network and other LEAH Projects) to maximize our resources, and as well as clinical partners and Minority Serving Institutions.

Evaluation:

We track our graduates with an annual NIRS Survey, our clinical activities through the demographics of whom we serve, our research through publications and extramural resources and our TA and CE by the numbers who participated in our programs. AYAs and their families are actively engaged throughout our evaluation process.