Ahnika’s research topic is the Evaluating Access and Utilization Among People with Mental Health Needs. Recently, there have been strides in the area of mental health services and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) significantly expanded eligibility for the Medicaid program in California (called Medi-Cal). The ACA aimed towards improving access to care issues that has affected the welfare of people with mental health needs. The objective of this research is to evaluate the access and utilization of health services among people with mental health needs. The population that was studied was California’s population, ages 18-64. Populations, including those enrolled in job-based coverage, individual plans, Medicaid, Medi-Cal, and the uninsured.
The study design used the 2015 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), and the statistics program that was used was SPSS. The CHIS data set that was used is the nation's largest state health survey that covers statewide information, and county-level information. The amount of people that have utilized health services were identified. We use bivariate analyses with chi-squared tests to determine the odds of having people who previously were uninsured and were now utilizing mental health services because they are insured through the ACA or other forms of private insurance. The main focus of this research was to analyze the associations between having mental needs and demographics, and having mental health needs and utilization outcomes.
The conclusion of this study was that people with demographic characteristics like poverty level or disability, represent a sizeable portion of people in California and have experienced psychological distress. There is also substantial interaction between mental health patients and their doctors as well as delays in getting medical care if the patient is experiencing psychological distress. The principle findings in this study were that there was a delay in getting medical care for the psychologically distressed in the last year is 34.8% and the last month is 37.1%, compared to the 11.9% in the last year that have not had distress and the 12.8% that have not had distress the last month, yet experienced the same delay in medical care. Also, that those with disability status constitute 64.6% of those that experienced distress the past year and 80.7% experienced distress the past month.
