Departmental Affiliations
Primary
Joint
Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD '15, conducts policy and services research focused on the health and well-being of people with substance use and mental health conditions.
Research Interests
health policy analysis; substance use; mental health; behavioral health; policy communication; politics of health policy; insurance claims data; Medicaid; employer-sponsored insurance
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2015
BA
George Washington University
2006
Overview
My research focuses on understanding how health and social policies affect populations with substance use and mental health conditions. I am currently conducting research in four main areas: (1) examining the impact of insurance and financing reforms on health service use and spending among persons with substance use and mental health diagnoses; (2) assessing the implementation of models that integrate mental health care, addiction treatment, other medical care, and social services; (3) evaluating policy responses to the drug overdose crisis; and (4) policy communication research involving measurement of public attitudes, analysis of content of news media coverage, and evaluating the persuasive effects of messages framing health policy issues.
Select Publications
Selected recent publications include the following:
- Kennedy-Hendricks A, Barry CL, Stone E, Bachhuber MA, McGinty EE. Comparing perspectives on medication treatment for opioid use disorder between national samples of primary care trainee physicians and attending physicians. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2020;216: 108217.
- Kennedy-Hendricks A, Levin J, Stone E, McGinty EE, Gollust SE, Barry CL. News Media Reporting on Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Amid the Opioid Epidemic. Health Aff 2019;38(4):643-651.
- Kennedy-Hendricks A, Bluestein J, Kral AH, Barry CL, Sherman SG. Establishing sanctioned safe consumption sites: Five jurisdictions moving the policy agenda forward. Psychiatric Services 2019;70(4): 294-301.
- Kennedy-Hendricks A, Epstein AJ, Stuart EA, Haffajee R, McGinty EE, Busch AB, Huskamp H, Barry CL. Federal parity and spending for mental illness. Pediatrics 2018;142(2): pii: e20172618. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-2618.
- Kennedy-Hendricks A, Gielen AC, McGinty EE, McDonald E, Shields W, Barry CL. Medication sharing, storage, and disposal practices among U.S. adults with recent opioid medication use. JAMA Intern Med 2016;176(7): 1027-1029.