Frances Lynch, PhD, MSPH, is a health economist whose research focuses on the organization and financing of care for people with mental health conditions. Her work has particularly focused on mental health and developmental conditions in children and the economic impact of these conditions on families. She has extensive experience conducting economic evaluations of complex behavioral interventions including interventions for depression and anxiety disorders.
Dr. Lynch has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 20 grants from the National Institutes of Health. She recently completed a four-year study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that assessed the economic impact of autism spectrum disorder on families.
Dr. Lynch has also conducted methodological research on quality of life in mental health conditions and methods for economic evaluation of interventions for mental health disorders. She recently completed a study examining the cost-effectiveness of an intervention to treat anxiety and/or depression in youth, studies examining the prediction of suicide and self-harm, and a study examining diagnoses and services for youth in foster care. She is currently working on several studies that investigate risk factors for suicide and potential benefits of suicide prevention interventions.
In addition to her work at CHR, Dr. Lynch holds an appointment as a senior investigator at OCHIN, Inc., conducting research on populations served in safety net clinics throughout the United States.
Dr. Lynch received her PhD in health economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, where she was the recipient of a fellowship in health economics from the National Institute of Mental Health. Following her doctoral work, Dr. Lynch was a post-doctoral fellow in children’s mental health in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Lynch also holds a master of science degree in public health policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.