Jennifer Schultz De La Rosa

Interests

Teaching

Co-Director of Pain and Society, FCM 304Bachelor's of Science in Medicine

Research

Chronic Pain, Anxiety/Depression, and Mental Health, Substance Use Disorder, Network Analysis, Health Service Quality, Patient Centered Care, Emotional and Attentional Regulation, Intertemporal Discounting and Delay Aversion, Impulsivity, Daily habits and rythms, Motivation, Goal Directed Persistence, Episodic Future Thinking, Integration of Self Across Past/Present Future, Reward Pathway Adaptation and Plasticity, Disentangling States and Traits, Situational and Contextual approaches, Lived Experience, Self-Determination and Empowerment, Learned Hopefulness.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• De La Rosa, J., Brady, B., Herder, K., Wallace, J., Ibrahim, M., Allen, A., Meyerson, B., Suhr, K., & Vanderah, T. (2024). The unmet mental health needs of U.S. adults living with chronic pain. Pain, 165(12), 2877-2887. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003340
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  Previous research suggests that individuals with mental health needs and chronic pain may be less likely to use mental health treatment compared with those with mental health needs only. Yet, few studies have investigated the existence of population-level differences in mental health treatment use. We analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (n = 31,997) to address this question. We found that chronic pain was associated with end-to-end disparities in the mental health journeys of U.S. adults: (1) Those living with chronic pain are overrepresented among U.S. adults with mental health needs; (2) among U.S. adults with mental health needs, those living with chronic pain had a lower prevalence of mental health treatment use; (3) among U.S. adults who used mental health treatment, those living with chronic pain had a higher prevalence of screening positive for unremitted anxiety or depression; (4) among U.S. adults living with both chronic pain and mental health needs, suboptimal mental health experiences were more common than otherwise - just 44.4% of those living with mental health needs and co-occurring chronic pain reported use of mental health treatment and screened negative for unremitted anxiety and depression, compared with 71.5% among those with mental health needs only. Overall, our results suggest that U.S. adults with chronic pain constitute an underrecognized majority of those living with unremitted anxiety/depression symptoms and that the U.S. healthcare system is not yet adequately equipped to educate, screen, navigate to care, and successfully address their unmet mental health needs.
• Meyerson, B., Linde-Krieger, L., Carter, G., Allison, A., Brady, B., Crosby, R., De La Rosa, J., Barakat, M., Pava, M., Schaefer, M., & Huff, A. (2024). Methadone clinic staff perceptions of trauma-informed and patient-centered care: the role of individual staff characteristics. Addiction Science and Clinical Practice, 19(1). doi:10.1186/s13722-024-00501-6
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  Background: U.S. policy intervention to increase methadone treatment accommodations during COVID did not result in national adoption of the new patient-centered treatment practices. Staff-level interventions may facilitate adoption of these treatment practices, but this will depend upon knowledge about staff level characteristics and beliefs. Currently, the role of clinic staff characteristics, beliefs about patient-centeredness, and perceptions about the need for treatment practice change is unknown. This study explored the relationship between opioid treatment program staff characteristics, work roles and staff beliefs to identify opportunities for future staff-level treatment practice change interventions. Methods: Staff of three Arizona opioid treatment programs were surveyed (n = 40) from April 11–22, 2023 using a hybrid online survey method. The 161 survey items required less than 30 min to complete. Pearson point biserial correlation coefficients assessed the covariation between staff beliefs, staff characteristics and staff work roles. Perception of the clinic as person-centered was a potential proxy indicator for staff awareness of discontinuity between the clinic’s person-centeredness and person-centered approaches to methadone treatment. Results: Among staff, 47.5% reported lived substance use disorder experience and 27.5% reported lived opioid use disorder experience. Most staff (70%) held at least 1 prior clinic role at the current clinic and 5% had had more than 4 prior roles. Rotation was observed with roles that did not require licensure or degrees. Staff with lived experience with substance use disorder or opioid use disorder treatment reported having more prior roles at the clinic than those without such experience. Abstinence-oriented views were significantly associated with reporting vicarious (work related) trauma symptoms. Those who rated the clinic as significantly more person-centered were staff with lived substance use disorder experience who also held abstinence-oriented views, staff with trauma exposure, and staff with lived opioid use disorder treatment experience who held harm reduction beliefs. In contrast, staff without substance use disorder experience who held harm reduction beliefs perceived the clinic as less person-centered. Conclusions: Staff beliefs, personal and work characteristics are likely factors in the recognition of need for clinic practice change. How these characteristics function in a clinic culture may also be influenced by clinic staffing patterns. A patient-to-provider pipeline with role cycling was observed and this staffing pattern may also influence shared beliefs of trauma-informed care or clinic person-centeredness. Vicarious trauma may also be an important factor. Larger studies should examine these relationships further to understand mechanisms associated with recognition of need for clinic practice change in order to inform staff-level interventions to increase opioid treatment program patient-centeredness.
• Brady, B. R., Taj, E. A., Cameron, E., Yoder, A. M., & De La Rosa, J. S. (2023). A Diagram of the Social-Ecological Conditions of Opioid Misuse and Overdose. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(20), 6950-6969. doi:10.3390/ijerph20206950
• Carroll, S. R., Suina, M., Jaeger, M. B., Black, J., Cornell, S., Gonzales, A. A., Jorgensen, M., Palmanteer-Holder, N. L., De La Rosa, J. S., & Teufel-Shone, N. I. (2022). Reclaiming Indigenous Health in the US: Moving beyond the Social Determinants of Health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
• Cunningham, J. K., De La Rosa, J. S., Quinones, C. A., McGuffin, B. A., & Kutob, R. M. (2022). Gender, psychiatric disability, and dropout from peer support specialist training.. Psychological Services.
• Yuan, N. P., Schultz, J. L., Nair, U. S., & Bell, M. (2020). Predictors of Tobacco Cessation Among American Indian/Alaska Native Adults Enrolled in a State Quitline. Substance Use & Misuse.
• Brady, B. R., De La Rosa, J. S., Nair, U. S., & Leischow, S. J. (2019). Electronic Cigarette Policy Recommendations: A Scoping Review. American Journal of Health Behavior, 1(43), 88-104.
• Carroll, S. R., Carroll, S. R., Schultz, J. L., Schultz, J. L., Briggs, E., Briggs, E., Riggs, P., Riggs, P., Palmanteer-Holder, N. L., & Palmanteer-Holder, N. L. (2017). Data as a Strategic Resource: Self-determination, Governance, and the Data Challenge for Indigenous Nations in the United States. International Indigenous Policy Journal.
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  Data about Indigenous populations in the United States are inconsistent and irrelevant. Federal and state governments and researchers direct most collection, analysis, and use of data about U.S. Indigenous populations. Indigenous Peoples’ justified mistrust further complicates the collection and use of these data. Nonetheless, tribal leaders and communities depend on these data to inform decision making. Reliance on data that do not reflect tribal needs, priorities, and self-conceptions threatens tribal self-determination. Tribal data sovereignty through governance of data on Indigenous populations is long overdue. This article provides two case studies of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and their demographic and socioeconomic data initiatives to create locally and culturally relevant data for decision making.
• de Grenade, R., Rudow, J., Hermoza, R. T., Aguirre, M. E., Scott, C. A., Willems, B., Schultz, J. l., & Varady, R. G. (2017). Anticipatory capacity in response to global change across an extreme elevation gradient in the Ica Basin, Peru. Regional Environmental Change, 17, 789-802. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1075-3
• Schultz, J. L., Schultz, J. L., Carroll, S. C., & Carroll, S. C. (2014). The Strategic Power of Data: A Key Aspect of Sovereignty. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(4), 1-2. doi:https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2014.5.4.1
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  The lack of good data about U.S. American Indian and Alaska Native populations hinders tribes’ development activities, but it also highlights a space for sovereign action. In coming years, tribes will no doubt continue to advocate for better national data and at the same time increasingly implement their own “data agendas” by gathering high quality, culturally relevant information about their communities. With more meaningful data, tribal policymakers can make informed decisions about which policies and programs are right for the task at hand. Strategic data planning empowers tribes to tell their communities’ stories through their own data, and not that of others.
• Schultz, J. L., & Breiger, R. L. (2010). The strength of weak culture. Poetics, 38(6), 610-624.