Evaluating Substance Use and Harm Reduction Programs for Unhoused People in Alameda County
Susan Ivey, Professor
Public Health
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
We are looking for one junior student who would be interested in working with Dr. Susan Ivey and Dr. Winston Tseng (School of Public Health) to analyze county-level data on overdoses and deaths from overdose, risk factors, and harm reduction policies (fentanyl testing, xylazine testing, Narcan) to evaluate programs to reduce opioid deaths and overdoses in our area. Students may also help on interviews with organizations engaged in harm reduction, IRB activities, reports and policy briefs that can be used for clinician education, program changes, or policy/advocacy purposes. We would greatly value skills such as prior qualitative research (interviews), analysis, and Spanish language fluency!
Role: The student will have readings and regular meetings with Drs. Ivey and Tseng as well as staff research associate Morgan. Students can participate in Alameda County or CDC project meetings on program evaluation and quality improvement efforts, interfacing with county public health and clinical staff working on solving these issues in the State of California. The student will work with the PIs, project manager, PH staff, and local clinicians to evaluate opioid prevention programs. This will include quantitative and qualitative approaches to gathering information about this overdose crisis. We use a trauma-informed care model. Potential for posters or publication in the future. Looking for minimum 1 year commitment.
Qualifications: Should have completed Data8 and at least one course in statistics/epidemiology. Must be able to conduct basic data entry or importing of existing data to produce information about mortality rates by gender, race, ethnicity, and geographic region. We are hoping to identify a student who also can create visually pleasing briefs, maps, charts, graphs, and tables to appear in reports or policy briefs. Plusses we value include experience conducting interviews or analyzing qualitative data, using GIS, and Spanish language skills.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr. Winston Tseng, Staff Researcher
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Our center is Health Research for Action (Dr. Ivey's research center) located in Golden Bear Center. We anticipate most of the work will occur virtually, often via Zoom meetings. However, we will also meet sometimes at the research center (Tseng/Ivey offices at GBC) or in person with Alameda County Public Health Dept. The student should be comfortable working on their own on data analysis and able to prepare products to review every other week. There are also 2 CDC Overdose to Action (OD2A) meetings monthly which students may help on/attend. Dr. Ivey also has a past URAP and past graduate student that the student can engage in as a team with other UCB students.
Related website: http://healthresearchforaction.org/
Related website: https://acphd.org/data-reports/reports-by-topic/overdose-surveillance/