D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto, PhD, MPH
Areas of Expertise:
Healthcare Policy
Minority Mental Health & Disparities
Public Mental Health Leadership
Research
D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto, PhD, MPH, is a research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Her research agenda primarily focuses on the structural and social determinants related to inequities in mental health, access to mental health care, and economic security.
Padilla-Frausto currently leads research on mental health outcomes using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). She is project manager for a tele-psychiatry evaluation among older adults. She is program director of the California Elder Economic Security Standard ™ Index (Elder Index), which highlights and addresses the hidden economic insecurity faced by many California adults age 65 and older.
Padilla-Frausto is a commissioner for the Los Angeles County Mental Health Commission, appointed by Hilda Solis, Board of Supervisor for District 1. She also serves on the Adult, Adolescent, and Child Technical Advisory Committees, and the Mental Health and Substance Use Workgroup for the California Health Interview Survey.
Prior to joining the Center, Padilla-Frausto was recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health – Career Opportunities in Research (COR) Honors Undergraduate Research Training Grant at the University of New Mexico’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA). She was a research assistant at the University of New Mexico in Family and Community Medicine where she supervised and trained promotoras (lay health-workers) to be mental health practitioners and research assistants in a community clinic setting.
Padilla-Frausto earned her Ph.D. from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in the Department of Community Health Sciences. She wrote her dissertation on the use of mental health services among Latinos with a focus on the role of discrimination and neighborhood crime. She received her master of public health degree from UCLA and her bachelor of science in psychology from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Padilla-Frausto DI, Wallace SP. The Role of Discrimination on Latinx’s Use of Health Services, A LatCrit and Life-Course Perspective. In JL Angel and M Lopez-Ortega, eds. Understanding the Context of Cognitive Aging. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70119-2_3
Padilla-Frausto DI, Babey SH, Wolstein J, Tse HW. 2021. Uncovering Unique Challenges: Variation in Unmet Mental Health Needs Among Latinx Ethnic Groups in California. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=2180
Tse HW, Padilla-Frausto DI, Wolstein J, Babey SH. 2021. Uncovering Unique Challenges: Variation in Unmet Mental Health Needs Among Asian Ethnic Groups in California. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=2179
Salem S, Padilla-Frausto DI, Tse HW, Kabir F, Barceló NE, Wright B. 2021. Missed Opportunities: Up to 9 in 10 Women Eligible for Public Health Services Have Unmet Mental Health Need. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=2215
Wright B, Padilla-Frausto DI, Tse HW, Crawford-Roberts A, Kabir F, Salem, S. Nearly 1 in 3 Adolescent in California Reports Serious Psychological Distress. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, January 2021. https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=2043
Padilla-Frausto DI, Kabir F, Wright B, Salem, S, Crawford-Roberts A, Tse HW. Serious Psychological Distress on the Rise Among Adults in California. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, September 2020. https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=1966
Padilla-Frausto DI, Salem S. Nearly 2 Million California Adults Not Getting Needed Public Mental Health Services. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, June 2020 https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=1940
AVAILABLE TO RESIDENTS FOR:
Research Mentorship