This project examines mental health for children in Germany, leveraging Alison Cuellar’s extensive research on mental health policy in the USA and the research of Martin Karlsson and Daniel Kühnle (University of Duisburg-Essen). The study investigates mental health from a life course perspective, including overcoming disadvantage in early life and lessons for prevention policy. Mental health is paramount because it affects health, education and employment and carries substantial, long-run consequences.
The first project outcome is an interdisciplinary workshop on how disadvantage is conceptualised, how it might manifest in poor youth mental health and related outcomes, and how a fuller understanding of disadvantage could inform effective community prevention. Germany is making substantial investments in community prevention, rendering this topic particularly timely. The workshop will bring together researchers from the University Alliance Ruhr and from the USA as well as representatives of foundations, public officials, sickness funds, social services agencies, and youth.
The second outcome is a report on the mental health status of youth in Germany. This report will integrate insights from workshop discussions, analyses of unique data, and recommendations for policy and practice. Survey, administrative and insurance data will be leveraged to examine mental health across age, gender, geography, socio-economic status, and other forms of disadvantage, using a broad range of measures. Alison Cuellar studies children’s health policy, including services and health insurance for low-income children and those involved in child welfare and justice systems. She will work closely with Martin Karlsson and Daniel Kühnle who have access to several unique data sources that can support a comprehensive picture of young people’s mental health in Germany.
Prof. Alison Evans Cuellar
George Mason University (USA) | Health Administration and Policy
E-mail: alison.evanscuellar@uni-due.de
Alison Cuellar is Professor of Health Administration and Policy at the College of Public Health at George Mason University (USA). She studies children’s health policy, including services and health insurance for low-income children. Her research includes children who experience poor mental health or who are involved in child welfare or justice systems. She is currently engaged in research related to health care for children in community clinics and related to insurance payment. In other work she has examined the intersection of behavioural health and the justice system; Medicaid policies and their impact on justice-involved youth and youth with behavioural health problems; mental health courts as an innovative alternative for justice-involved juveniles; and health care services for incarcerated youth and adults returning to the community. Her research has been funded by federal and philanthropic grants.
Alison Cuellar recently served on the The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's committee ‘Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Youth through Health Care System Transformation’. In addition, she serves as Chair of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) to which she was appointed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CPSTF is an independent, non-federal panel of public health and prevention experts that provides recommendations and findings on programmes, services, and other interventions to protect and improve population health.
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Photo Karlsson: © Anders Wahlund
Prof. Martin Karlsson & Prof. Daniel Kühnle
University of Duisburg-Essen | Economics, Health Economics
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© Anders Wahlund
Prof. Martin Karlsson
University of Duisburg-Essen | Health Economics
E-mail: martin.karlsson@uni-due.de
Martin Karlsson has been Professor of Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen since 2012, holding the Chair of Health Economics. Prior to this, he has held positions at Technische Universität Darmstadt, the University of Oslo (Norway), the University of Oxford (UK), and Cass Business School in London (UK). He received his doctoral degree from the European University Institute in 2007.
In addition to his role at the Chair of Health Economics, Martin is a research fellow of the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), a guest professor at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and Director of CINCH, a national centre for research on health economics. He regularly organises international academic conferences and engages in collaborative research projects across Europe and beyond.
Martin Karlsson’s research focuses on understanding the drivers of improvements in human health and socio-economic outcomes over the past century, with particular attention to the interplay between these factors. He investigates the long-term causal effects of investments in human capital early in life, often exploiting historical policy interventions and linking digitised historical data with modern administrative datasets. Other areas of research include the economics of health insurance, ageing and long-term care, and sickness absence. His work has been published in top economics journals.
Daniel Kühnle is Professor of Economics, with a focus on labour market and health economics, at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen. He holds a PhD in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Prior to joining the University of Duisburg-Essen, he held research positions at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and at FAU.
His research lies at the intersection of health, labour, and family economics from an applied micro-econometric perspective. Substantively, his work examines how public policies and socio-economic conditions shape health, well-being, labour supply, and family outcomes over the life course. Methodologically, his research draws on quasi-experimental designs and rich administrative and survey data. His work has been published in leading international journals including the Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Politics, Journal of Urban Economics, and Demography.
Daniel Kühnle is Deputy Director of the health economics research institute CINCH in Essen. He is a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) and at the Labor and Socio-Economic Research Center (LASER) of FAU, and he serves as a member of the standing field committees for Health Economics and Population Economics of the German Economic Association. He is also a senior faculty member of the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics (RGS Econ).