PolicyLab

PolicyLab is excited to announce that researcher Katherine Yun, MD, MHS, has been approved for a funding award through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The funds will support the dissemination of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment evidence to refugee health providers and refugee communities.

Nearly 1 in 10 resettled refugee adults suffers from PTSD. Effective PTSD treatment for refugee adults is critical not only to individual patients but also for families, as there is robust evidence that untreated PTSD among refugee parents has profound adverse impacts on child health, behavior and development. We know that kids do better when their parents do better, so it’s essential to take the necessary steps to improve the health of caregivers. 

In partnership with Pennsylvania’s Refugee Resettlement Program, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Refugee Health Program and Multicultural Health Evaluation Delivery Systems, Inc., this project will focus on increasing knowledge of PCORI’s PTSD treatment evidence among clinicians who care for refugees, as well as refugee community leaders and medical interpreters. Dr. Yun and her team will do this by summarizing PCORI evidence, developing a multi-lingual lexicon for discussing PTSD treatment recommendations with refugees, and disseminating these materials. We will soon launch a project page that will highlight more specific details of this work. Congratulations Dr. Yun!

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and health care decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.