Research to Improve Access to Healthcare for Disadvantaged Children with Developmental Disabilities
Research in the Kamimura-Nishimura Lab focuses on identifying and addressing barriers to diagnosis and treatment of developmental and behavioral conditions in minoritized and/or underserved groups.
Previous studies, and our own research have shown that family navigators use trust and empowerment to increase comfort with healthcare providers, leading to improved access to care, treatment engagement, and treatment completion, and in that way reducing healthcare disparities.
In addition, we also found that some sociodemographic factors (e.g., race/ethnicity, income, gender) predicted less ADHD medication receipt and that beliefs that medication is harmful and perceptions of a weaker working alliance with treating clinicians predicted decreased ADHD medication coverage.
Our lab developed a family navigator Intervention to Improve ADHD-Related Treatment adherence (I2-ART) for Black and Latinx children and is currently pilot testing it.
