Commentary: Determining Economic Factors That Matter to People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Their Caregivers: A Process Framework.

Background: The 2020-2029 strategic plan for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund calls for addressing data infrastructure gaps that are critical for studying issues around intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Specifically, the plan calls for data collection on economic factors that affect person-centered approaches to health care decision-making. Among people with I/DD and their caregivers, such economic factors may include financial costs of care, decreased opportunities for leisure and recreation, income losses associated with caregiving, and foregone opportunities for skill acquisition or other human capital investments.

The Role of Formal Policy to Promote Informed Consent of Psychotropic Medications for Youth in Child Welfare Custody: A National Examination.

Active participation of youth and surrogate decision-makers in providing informed consent and assent for mental health treatment is critical. However, the procedural elements of an informed consent process, particularly for youth in child welfare custody, are not well defined. Given calls for psychotropic medication oversight for youth in child welfare custody, this study proposes a taxonomy for the procedural elements of informed consent policies based upon formal and informal child welfare policies and then examines whether enacted state formal policies across the United States endorsed these elements.

The Impact of Increasing Community-Directed State Mental Health Agency Expenditures on Violent Crime.

Violent crime remains a prevalent threat to population health within the United States. States offer varying policy approaches to prevent violent crime and support behavioral health, such as community-based programs that include substance use disorder prevention and treatment. Using state mental health agency data, we construct a panel of U.