Rollins Research Review: Family-Driven Youth Mental Health Care, Intimate Partner Violence in LGBTQ+ Communities, and Patterns in Non-Communicable Disease

By Shelby Crosier

Last month, Rollins researchers authored papers on a wealth of public health topics. Find summaries of a few highlights below.

Title:Contextual Determinants of Family-Driven Care Implementation in Juvenile Justice Settings

Journal: Health & Justice

Rollins Authors: Kaitlin Piper, PhD; Cam Escoffery, PhD; Briana Woods-Jaeger, PhD; Jessica Sales, PhD

Important Takeaways:

• Engaging the whole family in behavioral health services for youth can help improve mental health outcomes, but there is little guidance about using this approach in the juvenile justice system.
• Using surveys and interviews with juvenile justice staff and leaders, a team of Rollins researchers studied how agencies use a family-driven care approach in their work.
• Juvenile justice agencies were more likely to use family-driven care when staff were trained in the approach, had the support of leadership and external partners, and had a workplace culture committed to family engagement and supportive of innovation.
• These findings can be used to promote and scale up family-driven care and improve mental health outcomes across more juvenile justice systems.

Title: Intimate Partner Violence in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Relationships: A Call for Research-to-Action Partnerships in Higher Education Settings

Journal: BMC Global and Public Health

Rollins Authors: John Blevins, ThD; Stephanie Miedema, PhD; Kathryn Yount, PhD

Important Takeaways:

• This paper serves as a call-to-action for institutions of higher education to partner with queer communities to address intimate partner violence (IPV) in LGBTQ+ relationships.
• Current research shows that the LGBTQ+ community experiences IPV at similar or higher rates as heterosexual adults in the U.S., which can increase already high risks of poor mental health outcomes.
• Research in this area is new and has gaps, especially in the Global South where LGBTQ+ individuals face high levels of stigma and discrimination.
• Institutions of higher education are positioned to shape attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community, implement programming to combat relationship violence in their student populations, and conduct research to fill current knowledge gaps.

Title:Investigation of Non-Communicable Diseases Prevalence, Patterns, and Patient Outcomes in Hospitalized Populations: A Prospective Observational Study in Three Tertiary Hospitals

Journal: Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition

Rollins Authors: Shivani Patel, PhD; Mohammed Ali, MD

Important Takeaways:

• Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes—are the leading cause of death globally, but they are still understudied in areas of the world like Sub-Saharan Africa.
• This study investigated the prevalence, patterns, and health outcomes of various NCDs among patients at three hospitals in Ethiopia.
• Across the three hospitals, almost a quarter of all patients had an NCD, and 15% of those patients died while in the hospital. Risk factors for death included having a cancer, chronic kidney disease, or an infection; not adhering to medication; and experiencing complications in the hospital.
• This highlights a need for hospital-based interventions, like infection control measures and medication adherence efforts, to improve NCD outcomes.