Christopher Hudson

Christopher Hudson, Ph.D., DCSW, first entered the field of social work as a community organizer on two Indian reservations at the tail end of the War on Poverty. Shortly after that, in 1974, he obtained his masters in social work from the University of Chicago. During the remainder of that decade he worked as clinical social worker in mental health and family service settings. He then completed his Ph.D. in social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1983, specializing in mental health policy and administration. He initially taught in MSW programs in Illinois, North Carolina, and from1987 to 2019, with Salem State University. In addition to his responsibilities at Salem State, he has recently served as the elected president of the 7,700 member Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (2013-2016). He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAMI-MA Research of the Year Award, and two William J. Fulbright Senior Faculty Awards, one in Hong Kong (2002/2003) and the other in Prague, CZ (2017/2018). He has also taught and conducted research in international mental health at universities in Auckland, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, and London. Dr. Hudson retired from Salem State in 2019.

• Mental health policy: financing, state mental health, administrative decision making, psychiatric deinstitutionalization
• Relationship between mental illness and socio-economic status, including role of poverty, income inequality, and isolation
• Chaos, self-organization, and complex systems theory; nonlinear dynamic modeling
• Homelessness, policy and epidemiological research; Best case management practices
• Managed care outcome research; offset effect of psychiatric care on medical utilization
• Applications of expert systems, simulations, and related technologies in the human services
• Application of structural equation modeling and other multivariate statistical methods to problems in social policy
• Linking epidemiology of mental illness with allocative decision making in mental health policy
• Applications of complex systems and self-organization in human behavior theory
• Spirituality and social work
• Geography of mental health / psychiatric epidemiology

COURSES:

Mental Health Policy & Services; Research; Human Behavior & the Social Environment; Spirituality & Social Work; Field Education; Perspectives in International Social Welfare

BOOKS

Hudson, C.G. (2022). (Editor). Research handbook of mental health policy, Edward Elgar Publishing (UK).

Hudson, C.G. (2010). (Foreword by T. Meenaghan). Complex systems and human behavior. Chicago: Lyceum Books.

Hudson, C.G. (1998). (Foreword by R. Dorwart). An interdependency model of homelessness: The dynamics of social disintegration. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.

Hudson, C.G. & Cox, A.J. (Eds.). (Foreword by D. Mechanic). (1991). Dimensions of state mental health policy. New York: Praeger.

Vissing, Y., Hudson, C.G., & Nilan, D. (2020). Changing the paradigm of homelessness, Routledge Books.

BOOK UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Hudson, C.G. Navigating time. An interdisciplinary model.

JOURNAL ARTICLES (Since 2012)

Hudson, C.G. . (2021)..Benchmarks for Needed Psychiatric Beds for the United States: A Test of a Predictive Analytics Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18. 

Hudson, C.G. (2020). The Nexus of Social Progress and Economic Inequality: Implications for the Grand Challenges of Social Work. Smith College Studies in Social Work 90 (3), pp. 1-28. 

Hudson, C.G. (2020). Benchmarking Psychiatric Deinstitutionalization: Development, Testing, and Application of a Model through Predictive Analytics. Best Practices in Mental Health 16(1), 13-32.

Hudson, C.G. & Dragomirecka, E. (2019). Decision Making in Psychiatric Reform: A Case Study of the Czech Experience. Central European Journal of Public Policy 13(2).

Hudson, C.G. & Doogan, N. (2019). The Impact of Geographic Isolation on Mental Disability in the United States. SSM: Population Health 8, 1-10.

Hudson, C.G. (2019). Deinstitutionalization and Rates of Psychiatric Disability: An International Study, Health & Place 56 (March), 70-79.

Hudson, C.G. (2018). Five-Year Follow-up of a State-wide Cohort of Persons with Schizophrenia. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology (January), 1-10.

Hudson, C.G. (2018). Behavioral mental health: An Emerging field of service or an oxymoron? Social Work 63(1), 27-36.

Hudson, C.G. (2016). A model of deinstitutionalization of psychiatric care across 161 nations. International Journal of Mental Health 45:2, 135-153, doi: 10.1080/00207411.2016.1167489.

Hudson, C.G. (2015). Churning in the human services: nefarious practice or policy of 'creative destruction'? New England Journal of Public Policy 27(1), Article 6.

Hudson, C.G., & Vissing, Y.M. (2013). Sustainability at the edge of chaos: Its limitations and possibilities for health care. BioMed Research International: Public Health. doi: 10.1155/2013/801614.

Hudson, C.G. (2012). Patterns of residential mobility of people with schizophrenia. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare 39 (3), 149-179.

Hudson, C.G. (2012). Declines in mental illness over the adult years: An enduring finding or methodological artifact? Aging and Mental Health 16 (6), 735-752. doi:10.1080 / 13607863. 2012.657157.

Hudson, C.G. (2012). Disparities in the geography of mental health: Implications for social work. Social Work 57 (2), 1-13, doi: 10.1093/sw/sws001.

Hudson, C.G. & Abbott, M. (2012, May). Modeling the geographic distribution of serious mental illness in New Zealand. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2012.

Hudson, C.G. & Soskolne, V. (2012). Disparities in the geography of serious mental illness in Israel. Health & Place.

CHAPTERS (Since 2012)

Hudson, C.G. (2022). United Kingdom’s Mental Health Policies and Services, Chapter 18. In: Research handbook of mental health policy, Edward Elgar Publishing (UK).

Hudson, C.G. (2022). Formulation of Mental Health Policy Research Problems, Chapter 2. In: Research handbook of mental health policy, Edward Elgar Publishing (UK).

Hudson, C.G. (2022). Introduction, Chapter 1, Research handbook of mental health policy, Edward Elgar Publishing (UK).

Hudson, C.G. (2022). Social progress, globalization, and the development of mental health as a human right. In: Globalisation, Ideology and Human Rights, Edited by Joseph Zajda and Yvonne Vissing, Springer, The Netherlands.    

Hudson, C.G., Guida, G., Scobie-Caroll, A., & Whiton-O’Brien, K. (2018). Licensing and Regulation of Social Work Practice, Social Work Speaks. NASW Policy Statements, 11th Edition, Washington DC: NASW Press.

Hudson, C.G. (2019). Theory on systems, complexity and chaos. In: Payne, M. & Reith-Hall, E. (Editors). Handbook on Social Work Theory, Routledge.

Hudson, C.G. (2017). Social Darwinism, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 760-763.

Hudson, C.G. (2017). Social Workers, in Wenzel, A. (Editor). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 3250-3251.

Hudson, C.G. (2017). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:  Lifespan Perspectives,  in Wenzel, A. (Editor). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 343-344.

Hudson, C.G. (2017). Geographic drift, in Wenzel, A. (Editor). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, p. 1195.
 

PEER REVIEWED (Since 2012)

Hudson, C.G. A Model of the Impact of Geographic Isolation on Mental Disability in the United States. Paper Presentation. Annual Program Meeting, Society for Social Work Research, 2021.

Hudson, C.G., Lee, JoAnn, & Wolfe-Branigan, Michael. Predictive Analytics: An Emerging Methodology for Supporting Social Work Decision Making. Training Session. Annual Program Meeting, Society for Social Work Research, 2021. 

Hudson, C.G. Predictors of Rates of Mental Disabilities Among Children in the U.S.: Implications for Child Mental Health Policy Development, 9th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health, York, United Kingdom, July 2019.

Hudson, C.G. Benchmarking Psychiatric Deinstitutionalization. Society for Social Work and Research, San Francisco, 2018.

Hudson, C.G. Decision-making Strategies in Mental Health Reform: The Czech Experience. DARE: Decision, Assessment, Risk, and Evidence, Belfast, Northern Ireland, July 2018.

Hudson, C.G., Garcia, M., & Murphy, R.  Symposium on Psychiatric Deinstitutionalization:  Current Developments and  Strategies for Reform, SWSD 2018: Social Work, Education and Social Development, Dublin, Ireland, July 2018.

Hudson, C. A Model of Deinstitutionalization of Psychiatric Care across 161 Nations: 2001-2014, 8th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health, Singapore, June 2016.

Hudson, C. A Long-term Follow-up of MSW Graduates: Predictors of Achievement and Career Tenure, Annual Program Meeting, Denver, CO, October 2015.

Hudson, C. Emerging Approaches to the Analysis of Secondary Databases, European Conference for Social Work Research, Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 2015.

Hudson, C. Local Disparities in the Risk of Serious Mental Illness in three Nations: Israel, New Zealand, and the United States. Society for Social Work Research, San Antonio, TX, January 2014.

Hudson, C., Abbott, M., & Soskolne, V. Disparities in the Geography of Mental Illness in Three Nations: A Comparison of Israel, New Zealand, and the United States. 7th International Conference of Social Work in Health and Mental Health, Los Angeles, June 2013.

Hudson, C. Improvements in Mental Health over the Adult Life Span: A Multi-Nation Study. 7th International Conference of Social Work in Health and Mental Health, Los Angeles, June 2013.

Vissing, Y., & Hudson, C. Homeless Children and Youth: An examination of legal challenges and directions. Presented at the Sociology of Law session, American Sociological Association annual meeting. August 17, 2012.

Vissing, Y. and C. Hudson. Homeless children and youth: An examination of legal challenges and directions. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Denver, CO. August 2012.

Estimating prevalence of serious mental illness in local service areas in New Zealand, Society for Social Work Research, Washington DC, January 2012.

Spirituality and consciousness, sailing, bicycling, hiking, jogging, skiing, foreign travel, folk dancing, family history/genealogy, computers, & others