My work in health services research began here at the Sheps Center in 1997, with investigations in four areas related to childhood immunization in North Carolina: immunization coverage; parental knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions; the identification of urban pockets of underimmunization; and caseworker perceptions of the immunization component of North Carolina's welfare reform program.  My research focus has since shifted to mental health services.  In the past I was involved in the following projects:

• the Tidewater Project, a comparison of two financing and organizational arrangements for Medicaid-reimbursed mental health services;
  
• an analysis of case manager perceptions related to the ACCESS project for homeless persons with mental illness;
  
• the Women, Co-occurring Disorders and Violence Project, a study of the effectiveness of integrated mental health, substance abuse, and trauma interventions;
  
• "Impacts of Managed Care on Substance Abuse Service Linkages"; and
  
• "A Randomized Clinical Trial Asessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Generalist Care Managers for the Treatment of Depression in Medicaid Recipients."

Currently I am working on the following projects with Drs. Joseph P. Morrissey and Kathleen C. Thomas:

• a project to analyze policy alternatives for North Carolina's "Ticket to Work" program for people with disabilities;
  
• "Integration Diffusion for SMI Service Delivery";
  
• "Development of a New Methodology for Mental Health Professional Shortage Designation"; and
  
• CADDRE-Based Study of Autism Service Use and Expenditures

Longitudinal analysis and hierarchical linear models are methodological interests.  In addition to mental health services research, topics of interest include include school-based preventive interventions (e.g., conflict resolution and peer mediation programs) as well as information technology and its applications in social work practice and research.

Contact Information:

Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
725 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., CB 7590
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7590

Telephone:  (919) 966-2340
Fax: (919) 966-1634
Email:  alan_ellis@unc.edu

Updated April 5, 2007