UIC College of Social Work Addresses Health Disparities and Social Determinants of Health

Posted on November 18, 2024
Photos of four people: an African American woman with shoulder length salt-and-pepper hair, a woman with long blond hair, an African American man with beard and mustache, and an African American Woman with braided hair
Clockwise from top left: Dean Creasie Finney Hairston, Associate Professor Jennifer Geiger, Associate Professor Branden McLeod and Associate Professor Otima Doyle.

The Jane Addams Center for Social Policy and Research received $2 million of second year funding for the Behavioral Health Crisis Hub (BHCH). With Dean Creasie Finney Hairston as principal investigator and Lorrie Rickman Jones as program director, the BHCH is the academic partner of the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health and provides support in implementing the 988 Crisis Hot Line and Mobile Response Units statewide. The 988 crisis line delivers emotional support to individuals who are in mental health-related distress, including family, friends and/or caregivers.

Dr. Jennifer Geiger received a nearly $400 thousand three-year contract from the Permanency Enhancement Project, a partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, to examine racial disparities and disproportionality in child welfare reporting, case openings and permanency outcomes and developing solutions alongside community members in Cook County.

Drs. Branden McLeod and Otima Doyle were awarded $50,000 from the Polk Bros. Foundation to support the new Lab for Empowerment and Advancement of Dad-Driven Research (LEADR). The lab examines racial/ethnic, income and other disparities in the Illinois Child Support System and was initiated from a collaboration among LEADR, the Parent and Community Technology and Law Center, and the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services.

Modified on November 15, 2024