Alex Young, MD, MSHS

Preferred Name: Alex Young

Dr. Alexander S. Young is a psychiatrist and health services researcher. He is Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is Associate Director of the Veterans Desert Pacific MIRECC Health Services Unit at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Healthcare System. He is board-certified in Psychiatry and Clinical Informatics.

Dr. Young focuses on community psychiatry, serious mental illness, and studying and improving the quality and value of healthcare, with a particular emphasis on mental health, implementation science and health informatics. He has led research that characterized health disparities nationally for people with depression and schizophrenia, highlighting disparities by race, gender and age. He has led numerous studies to improve health equity, reduce disparities, and improve the care of underserved and disadvantaged populations. These have included research grants studying implementation of effective practices, informatics systems to support improved care, and interventions to improve care. Recent grants from the VA, NIMH and other funders include studying an internet-based, peer-supported system that provides tailored education regarding diet and exercise to people with mental illness; studying computerized elicitation of preferences of mental health patients; evaluating a housing first program; and studying the implementation and effectiveness of a Patient-Centered Medical Home with integrated mental health care to improve the primary care of people with serious mental illness.  He has a current grant from VA studying the use of mobile sensor data for illness self-tracking and to improve mental health care.