OUR RESEARCH
Policy briefs, reports, and research studies.
Contact fuga-takahashi@courtyardsinstitute.org with inquiries.
Expanding Bilingual Behavioral Health Access in California
Daniel Neuner, Ryan Li, Ishan Ghosh
Despite billions in state and federal funding for county-run mental health plans, California’s $9 billion service gap is exacerbated by the lack of standardization in mental health training across professions, making it difficult to define consistent competencies or develop specialized pathways such as bilingual counseling.
The Courtyards Institute recommends the establishment of the Bilingual Counseling Loan Assistance Program, wherein the California Health and Human Services Agency approves statewide applicants for loan assistance in training for certification as behavioral health professionals.
Target Trial Emulation to Accelerate Policymaking
Praneel Patel, Eric Hong, Shalin Patel, Dr. Michelle Ramim
Policy research resists iteration. Current policy research paradigms are not built for iteration: additional data, better measurement, or analytic power rarely compound or reduce resource-spend or project timelines. Evidence remains boutique to a narrow problem, place, or moment in history.
The goal is to develop technology which allows policy developers and makers to virtually simulate policy interventions fast with low effort, optional domain expertise, and provable clinical accuracy. We aim to achieve this goal by translating a framework called “Target Trial Emulation” (TTE) from academic labs into the hands of non-expert policymakers who need not be experts in clinical trial design, coding, or data analysis. Our team has already validated this technology for use in national and decade-scale drug safety policy development and gained access to giant medical databases for use during development.
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Overhauling the Federal Register
Praneel Patel, Jennifer Fu, Fuga Takahashi, Catherine Cheng, Tyler Holtz, Nina Wu, Shalin Patel
Too often, citizens feel excluded from policymaking. The Federal Register notice-and-comment system is a powerful democratic tool with a strong legal history of protection, but it remains difficult for the public to navigate without domain expertise.
This study develops a platform that improves citizen accessibility to the Federal Register's / Register.gov’s commenting process. Recent redesigns improved accessibility; we hope to extend that progress by creating a UX-friendly, modern interface that matches citizens with the policies that impact them and, if they wish, enables them to submit comments directly through our portal.
Comparative Analysis: The Japanese Approach to Depression
Fuga Takahashi
While Japan hosts an advanced healthcare system and near-universal insurance coverage, depression remains significantly underdiagnosed and overmedicalized. Structural factors, including brief clinical encounters, rigid diagnostic norms, and strong social stigma, have contributed to a system that prioritizes pharmacological treatment while underutilizing psychotherapy and community-based care. These dynamics have reinforced patterns of doctor shopping, long-term benzodiazepine use, and limited continuity of mental health support.
This analysis examines how Japan’s regulatory framework, clinical training pathways, and cultural attitudes toward mental illness shape treatment outcomes, contrasting them with approaches used in other high-income countries.
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