Overview
Judith A. Cook is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She served as Principal Investigator of the coordinating center for the Employment Intervention Demonstration Program (EIDP), the largest US multi-site randomized controlled trial of supported employment for adults with severe mental illness (7 sites, n=1,273, 1995–2002 enrollment). Her research spans supported employment effectiveness, comorbidity effects on vocational outcomes, and psychiatric disorder prevalence in welfare-to-work populations.
Key Contributions
- EIDP coordinating center PI: Led design, data collection, and analysis for the 7-site RCT demonstrating that supported employment substantially increases competitive employment rates (55% vs. 34% control) across diverse models and populations (Cook et al. 2005)
- Co-occurring disorders and vocational outcomes (Cook et al. 2007): First systematic multivariate analysis showing physical comorbidities substantially reduce competitive employment (OR=0.48) while substance abuse/dependence has null effects; findings provide empirical basis for tailoring SE programs to people with comorbidities
- TANF psychiatric epidemiology (Cook et al. 2009): First comprehensive diagnostic study (CIDI 2.1 full battery) of long-stay TANF recipients; found 44.1% 12-month mental disorder rate and 66% untreated; documented employment-treatment tradeoff (more work → less treatment, OR=0.3)
- Ongoing EIDP sub-studies: Co-author on analyses of specific vocational services (Leff et al. 2005), clinical-vocational integration (Cook et al. 2005b), unemployment rate effects (Cook et al. 2006), costs (Marcotte & Wilcox-Gök 2003), schizophrenia outcomes (Cook et al. 2008 in Clinical Schizophrenia & Related Psychoses)
- SMI physical comorbidity prevalence and disparities (Razzano et al. 2015): Co-author of a 4-state cross-sectional study documenting that 87% of community mental health clients had ≥1 of 17 physical conditions, 14/17 significantly more prevalent than in the general population, treatment gaps for ~half of ongoing conditions, and racial/ethnic minority status doubling the odds of hypertension and diabetes. Extends the Cook et al. (2007) finding that physical comorbidities reduce competitive employment by characterizing their actual prevalence and severity. See Multimorbidity.
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