October 2020
CHAS eNews
POLICY BRIEFS
America Must Work with Its Southern Neighbors to Fight the COVID Pandemic
As of this week, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken more than 218,000 lives in the United States. While Americans have understandably been focused on protecting themselves and the United States has focused on safe-guarding its borders from the spread of COVID-19, Harold Pollack (CHAS Co-Director and Helen Ross Professor at SSA) provides a thoughtful analysis on the self-defeating and shortsighted nature of this response. In his analysis, Dr. Pollack highlights that the United States, Mexico, and other Central and South American nations are extremely interconnected, with goods, agricultural products, animals, and people moving back-and-forth across their borders. The spread of COVID-19 is also reflected in this flow, and without an effective vaccine available, the United States will not be able to control the pandemic on its own. Furthermore, America’s harsh immigration enforcement policies have worsened the pandemic here and across its borders. In addition to curbing harmful policies, Dr. Pollack advocates for the United States to collaborate with its southern neighbors and respond to the economic, social, and public health vulnerabilities that have been worsened or revealed by this public health crisis. Please follow the link below to read the full article.
Building Therapeutic Relationships Between Probation Officers and Probationers with Serious Mental Illnesses
A study conducted by CHAS Fellow and SSA Associate Professor Matthew Epperson engaged a variety of stakeholders to develop the Brief Intervention to Promote Service Engagement (BIPSE), which aims to enhance the therapeutic relationship between probation officers and probationers with serious mental illnesses. In the development of the BIPSE intervention, researchers held a series of meetings with stakeholders, observed probation sessions, incorporated existing intervention approaches, and engaged in a workshop of initial BIPSE components with three randomly selected officers from a specialized mental health probation unit. Stakeholder meetings identified engagement and shared decision-making to be foundational components of the BIPSE intervention. Furthermore, probation officers expressed interest in using modified tools provided in the study and structuring their sessions, while probationers appreciated the caring and collaborative nature that guided their sessions. The study affirms that it is necessary to build therapeutic relationships between probation officers and probationers with serious mental illnesses in order to improve mental health and criminal justice outcomes. Please follow the link below to access the full study and findings. 
UPCOMING eLECTURES

Susan Stone, PhD
University of California, Berkeley
10/20/2020 @ 12:30 pm CDT

Prachi Sanghavi, PhD
The University of Chicago
10/27/2020 @ 12:30 pm CDT

11/3/2020: No lecture.
PLEASE VOTE!

Jonathan Ozik, PhD
Argonne National Laboratory
11/10/2020 @ 12:30 pm CDT

Robert Kaestner, PhD, MA
The University of Chicago
11/17/2020 @ 12:30 pm CDT
CHAS PODCASTS
Invisible Visits: Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System
Dr. Tina Sacks, AM ’98, PhD ’13 Assistant Professor
School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley
Surgeon General of California; Author of The Deepest Well; CEO/Founder of the Center for Youth Wellness
The Importance of Community Asset Mapping, Medical Integration with Social Sciences, and Youth Involvement
Dr. Stacy Lindau, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine, UChicago Medicine and CIO/Founder of NowPow
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CHAS Affiliated Faculty Receive New Academic Roles
CHAS Director, and George Herbert Jones Distinguished Service Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, Jeanne C. Marsh, PhD, MSW, will serve on a national task force, organized by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), to develop competencies and curricular materials on health and social care to be used in schools of social work across the country. The task force was recently established to bring together leading experts on the integration of health and social care to enable schools to develop specialized, evidence-based practices in social work and health. 

CHAS Fellow, Christopher “Sola” Olopade, MBBS, MPH, Professor of Family Medicine and Medicine in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, has been appointed Dean for Academic Affairs in the BSD effective October 1. In this role, Dr. Olopade will lead the Office of Academic Affairs, which focuses on academic appointments and reappointments, promotion and tenure decisions, the interpretation of academic criteria, and academic policy development.

Congrats to you both!
Did you miss previous Davis eLectures?
Even though the Autumn Davis eLectures continue through November 17th via Zoom, videos are recorded and archived on the CHAS YouTube channel on a continual basis. Feel free to enjoy at your leisure while mobile! Please remember to register for future lectures and select to add to your calendars. For more information, please visit the Davis eLectures website. And keep an eye open for when Winter 2021 registrations open!