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

Assistant Investigator, 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, Kuo ES, Whiteside U, Shulman L, Betz ME, Parrish R, Boggs JM, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Simon GE. Patient and clinician perspectives of a standardized question about firearm access to support suicide prevention: a qualitative study. JAMA Health Forum. 2022 Nov 4;3(11):e224252. doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.4252. PubMed

Cruz M, Shortreed SM, Richards JE, Coley RY, Yarborough BJ, Walker RL, Johnson E, Ahmedani BK, Rossom R, Coleman KJ, Boggs JM, Beck AL, Simon GE. Machine learning prediction of suicide risk does not identify patients without traditional risk factors. J Clin Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 31;83(5):21m14178. doi: 10.4088/JCP.21m14178. PubMed

Simon GE, Shortreed SM, Boggs JM, Clarke GN, Rossom RC, Richards JE, Beck A, Ahmedani BK, Coleman KJ, Bhakta B, Stewart CC, Sterling S, Schoenbaum M, Coley RY, Stone M, Mosholder AD, Yaseen ZS. Accuracy of ICD-10-CM encounter diagnoses from health records for identifying self-harm events. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022 Aug 26:ocac144. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac144. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Yarborough BJH, Stumbo SP, Schneider JL, Richards JE, Hooker SA, Rossom RC. Patient expectations of and experiences with a suicide risk identification algorithm in clinical practice. BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 23;22(1):494. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04129-1. PubMed

Frost MC, Matson TE, Richards JE, Lee AK, Achtmeyer CE, Bradley KA, Williams EC. Barriers and facilitators to changing drinking and receiving alcohol-related care: interviews with Veterans Health Administration primary care patients who indicated interest but did not enroll in an alcohol care management intervention trial. Subst Abus. 2022;43(1):1197-1206. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2022.2074602. PubMed