The Crisis in the Children’s Mental Health Care System in Nevada and the Role of Occupational Licensing Boards

Abstract Introduction Occupational licensure has a function in society to ensure that public health and safety are protected from bad actors. Additionally, licensing boards have the gatekeeping role in assuring those public health and safety ideals. Nevada ranks as the worst state to live in for children with mental or behavioral health care needs. This […]

Recommendations to Improve the Children’s Mental Health System

Presented below one of my research projects that I worked on during my Masters in Public Health Internship with the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. Included are my Recommendations for how improvements can be made at the systems-level. *Recommendations and opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of CAA or my employer* Introduction There […]

Marriage Discrimination Still Exists (in Theory)

Wait, what? Yes, the Supreme Court declared in 2015 that marriage is a fundamental civil right and that two individuals regardless of sex have the unabridged right to join in blissful matrimony (see Obergefell v. Hodges). Prior to this 2015 ruling, in Nevada, in Sevcik v. Sandoval (2014), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled […]

Mental Health Analysis

PDF of the Infographics below References Kaiser Family Foundation – Medicaid MCOs and NCQA Quality Rankings Mental Health America – Youth Ranking NCQA Health Insurance Plan Ratings: Private, Medicaid, and Medicare Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services: Essential Health Benefits State Benchmark Plans Nevada Revised Statutes 689A.0455 & 689C.169 South Dakota Codified Law 58-17-56 Vermont […]

Decriminalizing HIV in Nevada

For my Health Policy & Administration course, part of the Master of Public Health program at the University of Nevada, Reno, I wrote this paper on the necessity to decriminalize those living with HIV in Nevada. HIV is not the same disease as it was in the 1980s and early 1990s, but while this is […]

impact: The Art of Asking

Admittedly, I can only name two Dresden Dolls songs, Coin Operated Boy and Girl Anachronism. When I bought the audiobook by Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer The Art of Asking: or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help it was partly because it seemed like an interesting book, a relevant topic, and the […]

Turning 30 in Puerto Vallarta

For my thirtieth birthday I wanted to do something that I had not yet done in my life. To start a new decade, do something new. During the summer I was asked by a friend that I had made through work conferences if I wanted to go on a gaycation (a portmanteau word for a […]