Julie Angerhofer, 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 Angerhofer, PhD, MPH*
Associate Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington School of Public Health
* formerly Richards
206-287-2100
Twitter: @jangerhofer
Biography
Julie Angerhofer, 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. Angerhofer recently received 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
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Suicide Prevention
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Alcohol and Drug Use
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Behavior Change
Firearm injury prevention; alcohol and drug misuse; tobacco cessation
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Mental Health
Depression; alcohol and drug use disorders; suicide prevention; self-management
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Social Determinants of Health
Stigma
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Health Services & Economics
Quality improvement, implementation cost
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Preventive Medicine
Public and population health; screening effectiveness and uptake; evidence-based practice recommendations
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Implementation Research
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Addictions
Prevention and treatment
Sparc trial tools
Resources for behavioral health integration
The SPARC trial successfully implemented behavioral health care into primary care. On our website, you can access tools for behavioral health integration, as well as frequently asked questions and publications.
Recent publications
Angerhofer JE, Cruz M, Shaw J, Stewart C, Runkle A, Wolter E, Holden E, Medlock S, Quintana L, Kuo EN, Trejo J, King R, Boggs J. Health care use preceding suicide by firearm compared with suicide by other means Alaska, Colorado, and Washington, 2020-2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2025 Jun 12;74(21):365-371. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7421a2. PubMed
Ahmedani BK, Penfold RB, Frank C, Richards JE, Stewart C, Boggs JM, Coleman KJ, Sterling S, Yarborough BJH, Clarke G, Schoenbaum M, Aguirre-Miyamoto EM, Barton LJ, Yeh HH, Westphal J, McDonald S, Beck A, Beidas RS, Richardson L, Ryan JM, Buckingham ET 4th, Buttlaire S, Bruschke C, Flores J, Simon GE. Zero suicide model implementation and suicide attempt rates in outpatient mental health care. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Apr 1;8(4):e253721. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.3721. PubMed
Simon GE, Stewart CC, Richards JE, Ziebell R, Lapham GT, Hoopes AJ. Accuracy of self-report questionnaires and records-based risk scores to identify adolescents' risk for self-harm. Psychiatr Serv. 2025 Jun 1;76(6):554-562. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.20240427. Epub 2025 Mar 19. PubMed
Rossom RC, Crain AL, Bart G, Richards JE, Boggs JM, O'Connor PJ, Borgert-Spaniol C, Kane S, Hooker SA. Randomized pilot of a clinical decision support tool to increase suicide screening for at-risk primary care patients with opioid use disorder. AJPM Focus. 2024 Oct 2;3(6):100280. doi: 10.1016/j.focus.2024.100280. eCollection 2024. PubMed
Penfold RB, Yoo HI, Richards JE, Crossnohere NL, Johnson E, Pabiniak CJ, Renz AD, Campoamor NB, Simon GE, Bridges JFP. Acceptability of linking individual credit, financial, and public records data to healthcare records for suicide risk machine learning models. JAMIA Open. 2024 Oct 21;7(4):ooae113. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooae113. eCollection 2024. PubMed
Research
Suicide attempts decreased after adding suicide care to primary care
Safety planning and risk screening improved outcomes for adult patients.
Research
Understanding adoption of Lock to Live, a decision aid supporting suicide prevention
KPWHRI research finds ways to increase use of a firearm safety tool.
News
Kaiser Permanente expands gun violence prevention work
Equity-focused research by Julie Angerhofer Richards, PhD, MPH, is among the work supported by $3.2 million.
KPWHRI in the media
Suicide care in primary care reduces suicide attempts
Primary care intervention might reduce suicide attempts
MedPage Today, Sept. 30, 2024
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