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

Simon GE, Richards JE, Boggs JM. Effect of care management or online dialectical behavior therapy skills training vs usual care on self-harm among adults with suicidal ideation-reply. JAMA. 2022 Jun 14;327(22):2246-2247. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.5883. PubMed

Frost MC, Richards JE, Blosnich JR, Hawkins EJ, Tsui JI, Edelman EJ, Williams EC. Association between clinically recognized suicidality and subsequent initiation or continuation of medications for opioid use disorder. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022 Aug 1;237:109521. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109521. Epub 2022 Jun 3. PubMed

Simon GE, Shortreed SM, Rossom RC, Beck A, Clarke GN, Whiteside U, Richards JE, Penfold RB, Boggs JM, Smith J. Effect of offering care management or online dialectical behavior therapy skills training vs usual care on self-harm among adult outpatients with suicidal ideation: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2022;327(7):630-638. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.0423. PubMed

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