Julie Richards, PhD, MPH

“My hope is that one day patient-centered care for mental health and substance use is the norm rather than the exception.”

Julie Richards, PhD, MPH

Senior Collaborative Scientist, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington School of Public Health

Julie.E.Richards@kp.org
206-287-2100

Twitter: @jangerhofer

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Biography

Julie Richards, PhD, MPH, is passionate about improving care for mental health and substance use in partnership with people who provide and receive health care. She applies qualitative methods to inform what research questions we should be asking and how we should consider answering them. She employs statistical methods to inform implementation evaluations with a goal of optimizing care delivery and improving clinical practice effectiveness and patient outcomes.

Dr. Richards recently received new grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to research firearm suicide prevention in health care systems via user-centered design and community-based participatory research. She also collaborates with multidisciplinary teams on a variety of mental health and addiction research projects, supports care delivery research partnerships, and mentors students at the University of Washington as an affiliate assistant professor.

Research interests and experience

Suicide Prevention
Alcohol and Drug Use
Behavior Change

Firearm injury prevention; alcohol and drug misuse; tobacco cessation
Mental Health

Depression; alcohol and drug use disorders; suicide prevention; self-management
Social Determinants of Health

Stigma
Health Services & Economics

Quality improvement, implementation cost
Preventive Medicine

Public and population health; screening effectiveness and uptake; evidence-based practice recommendations
Implementation Research
Addictions

Prevention and treatment

Recent publications

Richards JE, Boggs JM, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Kuo E, Betz ME, Bobb JF, Simon GE. Patient-reported firearm access prior to suicide death. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jan 4;5(1):e2142204. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.42204. PubMed

Boggs JM, Quintana LM, Beck A, Clinch S, Richardson L, Conley A, Richards JE, Betz ME. "Lock to Live" for firearm and medication safety: Feasibility and acceptability of a suicide prevention tool in a learning healthcare system. Front Digit Health. 2022 Sep 6;4:974153. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2022.974153. eCollection 2022. PubMed

Richards JE, Kuo E, Stewart C, Bobb JF, Mettert KD, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Betz ME, Parrish R, Whiteside U, Boggs JM, Simon GE. Self-reported access to firearms among patients receiving care for mental health and substance use. JAMA Health Forum. 2021 Aug 6;2(8):e211973. doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1973. eCollection 2021 Aug. PubMed

Rossom RC, Richards JE, Sterling S, Ahmedani B, Boggs JM, Yarborough BJH, Beck A, Lloyd K, Frank C, Liu V, Clinch SB, Patke LD, Simon GE. Connecting research and practice: implementation of suicide prevention strategies in learning health care systems. Psychiatr Serv. 2022 Feb 1;73(2):219-222. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000596. Epub 2021 Jun 30. PubMed

Tuzzio L, Meyers CM, Dember LM, Grudzen CR, Melnick ER, Staman KL, Huang SS, Richards J, DeBar L, Vazquez MA, Green BB, Coronado GD, Jarvik JG, Braciszewski J, Ho M, Wells BL, James K, Toto R, D'Onofrio G, Volandes A, Kuklinski MR, Catalano RF, Sterling SA, Morse EF, Curtis L, Larson EB. Accounting for quality improvement during the conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials within healthcare systems: NIH collaboratory case studies. Healthc (Amst). 2021 Jun;8 Suppl 1:100432. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2020.100432. Epub 2021 Jun 23. PubMed