Bonnie Zima, M.D., M.P.H.

Bonnie Zima, MD, MPH, Professor in Residence (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) and Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society. Her earlier research was dedicated to unmet need for mental health services among high risk child populations (i.e., homeless, foster care, juvenile justice) and more recently on the quality of mental health care for children enrolled in Medicaid-funded outpatient programs. Using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method, she led the development of 121 quality indicators and applied them to the first statewide study on quality of care for children with common childhood psychiatric disorders in publicly-funded outpatient specialty mental health clinics.

Dr. Zima was PI on five-year NIMH funded study that examined the quality of care and 18-month clinical outcomes among 546 children receiving care for ADHD in primary care and specialty mental health clinics within one of the nation’s largest managed care Medicaid health plans. This study successfully merged Medicaid service encounter and pharmacy claims data across primary care and specialty mental health care sectors and linked agency data with patient-level data from child and parent surveys and school records for three time points. These studies were conducted in partnership with state and county agency leaders, providers and consumers in the State of California Departments of Mental Health and Health Care Services, County of Los Angeles Departments of Mental Health, Public Health, and Children and Family Services, LA Care (managed care Medicaid health plan), Los Angeles Unified School District, and child and family advocacy groups. This research received national awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) for the most significant research paper of the year and best research paper on ADHD, respectively. Dr. Zima is a member of the Steering Committee for the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Behavioral Health Measures Project, past member for the NQF Child Outcomes and Child Health Projects, appointed member of the APA Council on Quality and AACAP’s Work Group on Research, Co-Chair of the Mental Health Work Group for the CHIPRA-AHRQ Center of Excellence for Children with Complex Health Care Needs, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.