18 Months

Unintentional fatalities because of prescription medications are an increasing problem in Utah and the United States. In response to this crisis of drug-related harm, the state government of Utah has undertaken several regulatory changes including promulgating guidelines for opioid prescribing and mandating that providers register to use the online portal for access to the Utah Controlled Substances Database (CSD), a registry of all filled prescriptions for schedule II-V drugs. This study aims to evaluate the impact of three regulations on prescribing patterns, use of the online system to access the CSD and adverse drug events.

Proactive policing has become a primary strategy for controlling violence and disorder in urban America. The key tactic is the widespread use of "Terry" stops, where police temporarily detain, frisk and perhaps search persons or their property when an officer has "reasonable suspicion" to suspect that "crime is afoot." This project will identify the effects of proactive policing on the mental and physical health of persons stopped. Law enforcement policies will be constructively informed by the identification of common practices that adversely affect the mental health of citizens. The project will assess the effects on community mental and physical health of "stop and frisk" or "Terry" stops, the dominant law enforcement strategy for violence reduction in urban areas.

Public health law research usually focuses on the substantive laws that effect health, not the accompanying funding laws. This study addresses a question that permeates public health law research: does the source and/or type of funding, not just the amount of funding, impact health outcomes? In 44 of Ohio's 88 counties, there is a dedicated local levy that provides flexible local child welfare funding. In 18 of the 88 counties, there was a IV-E waiver to provide flexible federal funding. The project analyzes 10 years of county level data provided by Public Children's Services Association of Ohio. Findings will identify key elements of successful funding strategies that may be adopted in other jurisdictions to improve outcomes for children in state care and thereby improve the mental health of children who have experienced state care.

This project aims to study whether laws that target reducing emissions from local polluting activities have distinguishable health impacts: What federal, state, and local regulations can reduce or shift electricity demand in New York City away from peak hours; how will local New York City power plants respond to that changing demand; and will those plant-specific responses have any significant health impacts for local populations?