Center for Social Services Research: About CSSR: Edward Cohen

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Edward Cohen, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Director, Center for Social Services Research
ecohen@berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-6556

Research Interests:

Program evaluation for mental health and child welfare services
Developmental transitions
Children and adult systems of care
Disparities in mental health service use

Edward Cohen received his M.S.W. (1983) and Ph.D. (2000) in Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught research methods (UC Berkeley) courses in managed care (UC Davis), and courses in improving agency performance through the use of data (Northern CA Regional Child Welfare Training Academy). Practice experience includes over 17 years in senior positions as a clinician, administrator, policy planner and consultant in both private and public mental health and social service agencies. Dr. Cohen has been Director of CSSR since December 2002. He currently serves on the editorial board of Research on Social Work Practice.

Recent Projects:

Co-Investigator (with Professor Lonnie Snowden): Evaluation of the 'California Learning Collaborative' (funded by The California Endowment, in partnership with the California Institute for Mental Health (www.cimh.org) and the Center for Healthcare Strategies (http://www.chcs.org/) .

Co-Investigator (with Professor Jill Duerr Berrick): Evaluation of Contra Costa County's 'Partnering for Permanence' Project (funded by Conra Costa County with a grant from the federal Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau).

Project Coordinator (Professor James Midgley, Principal Investigator): "Strategic Plan to Increase the Flow of Minority, Multi-Lingual and Culturally Competent Professional Social Workers into California's Mental Health System" (funded by The California Endowment).

Co-Investigator (with Professor Lonnie Snowden): Transition-Age Youth Mental Health Study (funded by The Zellerbach Family Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation, ended 2005)

Principal Investigator: California's Title IV-E Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Project (ended June 2004) (funded by the California Department of Social Services)

Selected Reports and Publications:

Cohen, E. (1999). Survey of Healthy Families Health Plans: Results, Data and Evaluation Issues, and Recommendations. Report to the California Institute of Mental Health, Healthy Families Committee. Sacramento, CA: California Institute for Mental Health.

Cohen, E. & Bloom. J. R. (2000). Managed care and service capacity development in a public mental health delivery system. Administration and Policy in Mental Health. 28(2), 63-74.

Penner, S. J., & Baler, S., Walkover, M., Cohen, E. (2000). Challenges to quality management in the public sector. In G. Stricker & W. G. Troy (Eds.), Handbook of quality management in behavioral health. (pp. 157-169). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Cohen, E. (2001). Outcomes Compliance Assessment of a Children's System f Care: Report and Recommendations for an Evaluation Design. San Diego, CA: Children, Youth and Family Network of San Diego.

Cohen, E. (2003). Utilization management systems: State of the art and relevance to the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System. Santa Clara County, Department of Mental Health.

Thomas, K. L., Cohen, E., & Berrick, J. D. (2003). California's Waiver evaluation of FGDM: A unique opportunity. Protecting Children, 18(1 &2), 52-57.

Thomas, K. L., Berzin, S. C., & Cohen, E. (2005). Fidelity of Family Group Decision-Making: A Content Analysis of Family Conference and Case Plans In a Randomized Treatment Study. Protecting Children, 19(4), 4-16.

Cohen, E. & Angeles, J. (2006). School-based prevalence assessment of the need for mental health services: Survey development and pilot study. Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 200-211.

Cohen, E. & Canan, L. (2006). Closer to home: Parent mentors in child welfare. Child Welfare, 85, 867-895.

Cohen, E., Snowden, L. R., Libby, A. & Ma, Y. (2006). The effects of capitation on outpatient mental health episodes of children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 15, 13-26.