About

Dr. Alexander S. Young is a psychiatrist and health services researcher. He is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and Interim Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is Interim Physician-in-Chief of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. He is 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, patient-reported outcomes, and health informatics. He has led research grants studying implementation of effective practices, informatics systems to support improved care, and implementation of interventions to improve care. Recent grants from 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; and evaluating a housing first program. He is studying the implementation and effectiveness of a Patient-Centered Medical Home model with integrated mental health care that is adapted to improve the primary care of people with serious mental illness.