Harkness Project Title: Transforming Healthcare into a Patient-Led Service: Giving Individuals Greater Choice and Control over Their Treatment

Mentor: Pamela Doty, Ph.D.

Placement: Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C.

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Vidhya Alakeson, a 2006–07 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is lead analyst, mental health, at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to her Harkness Fellowship, she was a research associate at the Social Market Foundation, one of the UK's leading public policy think tanks. She was previously policy advisor at HM Treasury, leading a cross-government review of policy for children, young people and families and has also worked on an international study of youth policy at the Prime Ministers' Strategy Unit. Before working in government, she spent several years working in public policy think tanks, including Forum for the Future and Policy Network. She graduated with a first class degree from Oxford University in 1994 and a M.Sc. with distinction in European studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1999.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Director of Research and Strategy, Resolution Foundation, 2011
• Senior Fellow in Health Policy, The Nuffield Trust, 2010
• Lead Analyst, Mental Health, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2007 

Current Position: Director of Research and Strategy, Resolution Foundation. (Updated July 2011)

E-mail: alakesonvidhya@yahoo.co.uk

Harkness- Related Publications

Alakeson V, Frank RG, Katz RE. “Specialty Care Medical Homes for People With Severe, Persistent Mental Disorders.” Health Affairs 2010; 29 (5).

Alakeson V, International Developments in Self-Directed Care, The Commonwealth Fund, Feb. 2010.

Alakeson V. “Nothing about me, without me: Participant involvement in self-direction,” In: Self-direction Handbook for States (Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).

Alakeson V. “Why Oregon went wrong.” BMJ. 2008 Oct 14;337:a2044. doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2044.

Alakeson V. “America's health choices.” BMJ. 2008 Sep 23;337:a1563. doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1563.

Alakeson V. ‘Self-direction for adults with serious mental illness: The barriers to progress’, Psychiatric Services, 2008: Vol. 59, No. 7: 792-794

Alakeson V. “Let Patients Control the Purse Strings,” BMJ 2008 Apr 12; 336(7648):807-9.

Alakeson V.  ‘My body, my budget’, Public Finance, August 2007.

Alakeson V. ‘Let patients control the purse strings’, The Guardian, 4th July 2007.

Alakeson V. “Direct Dollars,” Mental Health Today, March 2007, 16-18. 

AlakesonV. Putting Patients in Control: The Case for Extending Self-Direction into the NHS (London: Social Market Foundation, 2007).

Alakeson V.  The Contribution of Self-Direction to Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services (Washington DC: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2007).