Skip to Main Content

Joy S. Kaufman, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry
DownloadHi-Res Photo

Additional Titles

Director, The Consultation Center, Psychiatry

Director, YaleEval, Psychiatry

About

Titles

Professor of Psychiatry

Director, The Consultation Center, Psychiatry; Director, YaleEval, Psychiatry

Biography

Joy S. Kaufman, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology Section), Yale School of Medicine and Executive Director of the Yale Consultation Center and of YaleEVAL. Trained as a Clinical and Community Psychologist, Dr. Kaufman conducts large-scale, multi-level evaluations of health service delivery systems, provides consultation to governmental and community organizations regarding these evaluations, and carries out related research. These evaluations take place in under-resourced communities; involve close partnerships with state and municipal governments, community organizations, and other public stakeholders; and generate data that informs program and policy development. A unique feature of her work is the training of public stakeholders to evaluate the services they receive or to utilize data so that they can provide rigorous and systematic feedback to improve services and participate in decision-making about their community. Dr. Kaufman's research interests include the identification of contextual factors that impact outcomes for individuals with emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Appointments

Education & Training

Postdoctoral Fellow
Yale University, Clinical and Community Psychology (1994)
PhD
Depaul University (1993)
Doctoral Fellow
Yale University School of Medicine (1993)
MA
Depaul University (1990)
BA
Assumption College (1985)

Research

Overview

My research has had three major emphases: 1) evaluation of the implementation of programs and systems of care; 2) evaluation methodology, including the training of community members to conduct evaluations; and 3) the examination of the impact of exposure to violence on young children. This research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Connecticut Department of Children and Families; Connecticut Department of Public Health, and Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Over the past 15 years, I have worked to develop and enhance a conceptual framework that guides the application of evaluation techniques and strategies. This framework, takes into account contextual factors and employs scientific rigor in the development and implementation of evaluations of community programs and systems of care. Over the past decade, I have also developed techniques to train community members in all aspects of evaluation and have, when possible, included client/consumer-led data collection in the evaluation of service delivery systems. Understanding the impact and incidence of children’s exposure to potentially traumatic events and the impact of this exposure on service outcomes is a third area of interest. For many years, I have embedded measures of children’s exposure to trauma in all my evaluation studies, and have used this data to understand the rate, type, and impact of this exposure on the receipt of services.

Currently I have three studies underway. The first study is an evaluation of Connecticut’s implementation of an integrated network of care for children with behavioral difficulties and their families. In this study, my team and I are examining the processes and outcomes related to the increased coordination of services provision at the state-level. This study also includes training family members and youth to collect data from their peers to examine consumer perceptions of the service delivery system. Second, I am a co-investigator overseeing the qualitative component of on a PCORI study exploring implementation and outcomes of two interventions targeting obstetric providers serving pregnant individuals who have an opioid use disorder. Finally, I am evaluating the outcomes of the implementation of two promising practices for children to reduce the impact of exposure to traumatic events. Future directions include further expansion of the work training community-members to conduct research through an application to the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to improve healthcare systems for children. Finally, we are continuing to disseminate our findings related to the service outcomes for children exposed to potentially traumatic events. Data elements related to children’s exposure to trauma are embedded in all of our evaluation protocols.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Community Participation; Community-Based Participatory Research; Health Equity; Health Promotion; Program Evaluation; Psychiatry and Psychology; Qualitative Research; Social Justice; Stakeholder Participation

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Joy S. Kaufman's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

Clinical Trials

Current Trials

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    American Journal of Community Psychology

  • activity

    Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

  • activity

    Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

  • activity

    Society for Community Research and Action

  • activity

    Evaluation of the Connecticut Network of Care - CONNECT

Get In Touch

Contacts

Academic Office Number
Office Fax Number
Mailing Address

Psychiatry

The Consultation Center, 389 Whitney Avenue

New Haven, CT 06511-

United States

Administrative Support