Education

• Bachelor of Social Work: 2011 - Eastern New Mexico University
• Master of Social Work: 2012 - Boston College
• PhD in Social Work: 2022 - New York University
• Postdoctoral Fellowship: 2023 - University of California, San Francisco

Biography

Yeqing Yuan is an Assistant Professor at University of Alaska Anchorage School of Social Work. Yeqing's research focuses on understanding and improving housing stability as a means to improve mental health and substance use outcomes. Her dissertation research, funded by National Association of Social Work Foundation, used a community-engaged, mixed-method approach to develop a novel conceptual framework of subjective housing stability definition among individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. This framework innovated the conceptualization of housing stability by capturing the experiential dimension of the construct, such as social connection. In her postdoctoral training, Yeqing further expanded this line of research by examining loneliness among older adults experiencing recent homelessness through mixed-methods analyses. Yeqing's overall research program aims to develop and implement an enhanced social service model to improve behavioral health (i.e., mental health and substance use). This is informed and driven by her clinical social work experience providing behavioral health care to individuals with serious mental illness and substance use problems experiencing homelessness.

Teaching Responsibilities

• Foundation Research Methods

Research Interests

• Homelessness
• Housing
• Behavioral health
• Community integration

Publications

• Yuan Y, Padgett D, Thorning H, Manuel J (2023). “It’s stable but not stable”: A conceptual framework of subjective housing stability definition among individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 19 (2-3), 111-123. doi: 10.1080/15504263.2023.2225357.
• Manuel, J. I., Nizza, M., Herman, D. B., Conover, S., Esquivel, L., Yuan, Y., & Susser, E. (2023). Supporting vulnerable people during challenging transitions: A systematic review of critical time intervention. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 50(1), 100-113.
• Karadzhov, D., Yuan, Y., & Bond, L. (2020). Coping amidst an assemblage of disadvantage: A qualitative metasynthesis of first‐person accounts of managing severe mental illness while homeless. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 27(1), 4-24.
• Pahwa, R., Smith, M. E., Yuan, Y., & Padgett, D. (2019). The ties that bind and unbound ties: Experiences of formerly homeless individuals in recovery from serious mental illness and substance use. Qualitative health research, 29(9), 1313-1323.
• Xu, D., Xiao, S., He, H., Caine, E. D., Gloyd, S., Simoni, J., Yuan, Y. & Gong, W. (2019). Lay health supporters aided by mobile text messaging to improve adherence, symptoms, and functioning among people with schizophrenia in a resource-poor community in rural China (LEAN): A randomized controlled trial. PLoS medicine, 16(4), e1002785.
• Yuan, Y., & Manuel, J. I. (2018). The relationship between residential mobility and behavioral health service use in a national sample of adults with mental health and/or substance abuse problems. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 14(4), 201-210.
• Manuel, J. I., Yuan, Y., Herman, D. B., Svikis, D. S., Nichols, O., Palmer, E., & Deren, S. (2017). Barriers and facilitators to successful transition from long-term residential substance abuse treatment. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 74, 16-22.

Career History/Work Experience

• Shelter Specialist (2012 - 2015). Eliot Community Human Services Inc. Boston, Massachusetts
• Job Responsibilities: Provided homeless outreach and clinical case management services to adults and adolescents with serious mental illness experiencing homelessness.