Andrew Sarkin, PhD
Dr. Andrew Sarkin is a clinical psychologist and expert in the measurement and assessment of health and behavioral outcomes with 30 years of experience in clinical research and program evaluation. He is currently the Director of Evaluation Research at the UC San Diego Health Services Research Center (HSRC) and has served as a co-investigator for a San Diego County Behavioral Health Services contract to provide performance monitoring and evaluation of clinical treatments and programs since 2002. Dr. Sarkin provides expertise in evaluating policy and systems change, evaluating community engagement and collaboration, and clinical study design. He also has experience in conducting evaluation of health programs that target priority populations, longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and dissemination of research results for various audiences.
Dr. Sarkin directs the research of several SAMHSA clinical studies and directs the evaluation of the San Diego County Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Prevention and Early Intervention programs. These evaluation efforts incorporate stakeholder engagement from many sources, and he just completed a proposal to expand stakeholder involvement through Community-Based Participatory Behavioral Health Research in San Diego County in partnership with the Psychiatry Department. He is active in designing and delivering training for clinical program staff who provide services to our underserved communities. He is co-investigator on the study to determine the effectiveness of the California American Indian Tobacco Initiative to reduce commercial tobacco use.
Dr. Sarkin also is the director of the public health internship program at HSRC. Recently he participated in the founding of the new UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health. He currently teaches Project Management for UC San Diego Extension’s Clinical Research program.
Accomplishments
- Directed the creation of a special report on “Reducing Mental Health Stigma in San Diego County”
- Presented at the 2020 Meeting of the Minds Conference on “Understanding Stigma from People Walking the Journey: Impacts and Recommendations”
- Coauthored a qualitative paper on “Understanding the Challenges of Engaging Patients in Mental Health Services after Psychiatric Hospitalization”
- Completed a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant on Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction
- In partnership with La Maestra Community Health Centers, started a grant evaluation for a SAMHSA-funded Community-Based Behavioral Health Clinic
- Started a contract with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to provide program evaluation services for their peer counselor programs
- Renewed a contract to provide ongoing program evaluation for the Suicide Prevention Council through California Health Improvement Partners
- Established new research internship opportunities in a medical setting for UC San Diego students while also supervising several interns at the Health Services Research Center
- Directed the creation of a new Electronic Health Record system for Mental Health Clubhouses and evaluated the impact of these programs through new outcome measures collected in the system
- Under contract with San Diego County, provided training to dozens of San Diego County practitioners in the use and interpretation of tools and measurement instruments to help create treatment plans and track progress, while also training program leaders in the use of data to measure program outcomes and set program improvement goals