About

David S Mandell is the Kenneth E. Appel Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He is a research affiliate at the Population Studies Center and a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Mandell serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Autism Research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is the director of the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research within the Department of Psychiatry. His research expertise focuses on children's psychiatric epidemiology and children's mental health services research. Mandell's work involves examining disparities in mental health diagnosis and treatment among children, autism spectrum disorders, and the use of psychotropic medications in children with autism. He has contributed to understanding ethnic disparities in special education labeling, autism diagnosis, and mental health service utilization, and has been involved in developing evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment of childhood behavioral issues.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Family medicine
• Demography
• Applied psychology
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Marketing

Selected publications

• Training to understand and navigate emotions and interactions (TUNE In): A novel program to support social functioning in adults on the autism spectrum

  Research in Autism · 2026-01-12

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Teachers’ and Caregivers’ Predictions of Autistic Students’ Kindergarten Transition Success

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Training to Understand and Navigate Emotions and Interactions (Tune in): A Novel Program to Support Social Functioning in Adults on the Autism Spectrum

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Exploring Preferences for Communication and Care Among Hospitalized Patients With Opioid Use Disorder: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

  Journal of Addiction Medicine · 2025-02-03 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to explore hospitalized patient priorities for effective communication and care in opioid use disorder (OUD). METHODS: In this qualitative descriptive study, we conducted semistructured interviews from April to August 2022 focusing on communication values with inpatient care teams among hospitalized patients with OUD in Philadelphia, PA. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed with thematic content analysis. RESULTS: We identified 3 key themes in the communication and care planning preferences of the 21 patients we interviewed: effectiveness, reciprocity, and empathy. Patients emphasized the need for clear, reliable, and frequent communication from healthcare providers, valuing collaborative dialog, shared decision making, and empathic nonstigmatized interactions that incorporated their prior experiences, full personhood, and current symptoms. Participants reported negative experiences with inconsistent or dismissive communication but appreciated care that incorporated their input and was nonjudgmental, fostering a sense of trust in their healthcare teams. CONCLUSIONS: Effective, empathic communication, and shared decision making were favored by hospitalized patients with OUD and may be a way to improve treatment for hospitalized patients with OUD. Our findings underscore the need for stigma reduction strategies in clinical education and the expansion of both generalist resources for the treatment of OUD and specialized addiction care services.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Referee report. For: A Protocol to examine the needs and experiences of autistic children/young people or children/young people with an intellectual disability when receiving support for mental health difficulties from child and adolescent mental health services [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]

  Faculty of 1000 Research Ltd · 2025-01-01

  peer-reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Toolkit to Support Teachers’ Use of Behavioral Classroom Interventions: Results from a Randomized Pilot Trial

  School Psychology Review · 2025-11-06

  article

  Teacher-delivered Tier 1 (i.e., whole class) and Tier 2 (i.e., targeted) behavioral classroom interventions are effective in improving student academic and behavioral functioning, but often not delivered as recommended. Implementation strategies, especially strategies that are both feasible and effective, could support teachers in the delivery of these interventions. This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluated the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary evidence of effectiveness of the Positive Behavior Management Toolkit (PBMT) in supporting teacher implementation and student outcomes. The PBMT is a modular implementation resource package to support K-5 teachers in delivering Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral interventions. Twenty teachers were randomized to receive either the PBMT or implementation support as usual. Quantitative and qualitative results suggested that the PBMT was highly acceptable, feasible and contextually appropriate. We also collected data on teacher fidelity to behavioral interventions and student outcomes for enrolled focal students with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at baseline and post-intervention. Although the pilot study was underpowered to conduct significance testing, the results suggested the PMBT may be effective in supporting teacher implementation outcomes and were mixed regarding student outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Exploring the Potential of Large Language Models for Automated Safety Plan Scoring in Outpatient Mental Health Settings

  medRxiv · 2025-03-27

  preprintOpen access

  The Safety Planning Intervention (SPI) produces a plan to help manage patients' suicide risk. High-quality safety plans - that is, those with greater fidelity to the original program model - are more effective in reducing suicide risk. We developed the Safety Planning Intervention Fidelity Rater (SPIFR), an automated tool that assesses the quality of SPI using three large language models (LLMs)-GPT-4, LLaMA 3, and o3-mini. Using 266 deidentified SPI from outpatient mental health settings in New York, LLMs analyzed four key steps: warning signs, internal coping strategies, making environments safe, and reasons for living. We compared the predictive performance of the three LLMs, optimizing scoring systems, prompts, and parameters. Results showed that LLaMA 3 and o3-mini outperformed GPT-4, with different step-specific scoring systems recommended based on weighted F1-scores. These findings highlight LLMs' potential to provide clinicians with timely and accurate feedback on SPI practices, enhancing this evidence-based suicide prevention strategy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Testing Three Alternate Methods to Direct Observation in Measuring Use of Discrete Youth Cognitive Behavioral Techniques: A Secondary Analysis

  Implementation Research and Practice · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Background Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an umbrella term for therapeutic techniques guided by cognitive behavioral theory, is an evidence-based approach for many psychiatric conditions in youth. A stronger dose of CBT delivery is thought to improve youth clinical outcomes. While a critical indicator of care quality, measuring the use of CBT techniques feasibly and affordably is challenging. Certain CBT techniques (e.g., more concrete and observable) may be easier to measure than others using low-cost methods, such as clinician self-report; however, this has not been studied. Method To assess the concordance of three methods of measuring CBT technique use with direct observation (DO), clinicians from 27 community agencies ( n = 126; M age = 37.7 years, SD = 12.8; 76% female) were randomized 1:1:1 to a self-report, chart-stimulated recall (CSR; semistructured interviews with the chart available), or behavioral rehearsal (BR; simulated role-plays) condition. In previous work using a global score aggregating 12 CBT techniques, only BR produced scores that did not differ from DO. This secondary analysis examined the concordance of these alternate methods with DO for each discrete CBT technique, testing for differential concordance across cognitive techniques (e.g., cognitive education) compared to behavioral techniques (e.g., behavioral activation). Results Results of three-level mixed effects regression models indicated that BR scores did not differ significantly from DO for any techniques, and for nine techniques, neither did CSR (all p s > .05). Contrastingly, self-report scores differed from DO for all but one technique, with greater concordance for behavioral than cognitive techniques ( z = −3.29, p < .001). Conclusions Unlike previous findings using an aggregate score, we found that both BR and CSR did not differ significantly from DO for most techniques tested. These findings have implications within implementation research and usual care settings; they support multiple viable measurement methods that are less resource-intensive than DO.

  PublisherDOI

• What <i>Psychiatric Services</i> Stands For

  Psychiatric Services · 2025-04-30 · 1 citations

  editorial
  PublisherDOI

• Scaling up low barrier wound care for people who use drugs: a mixed methods study

  Harm Reduction Journal · 2025-05-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: People who use drugs (PWUD) have long required wound care-a need that has become more urgent with the rise of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer in the street opioid supply associated with necrotic wounds. When PWUD visit the hospital for wound care, they often face discrimination from healthcare staff and leave the hospital before treatment completion. Low barrier wound care, community-based wound care that is grounded in harm reduction, is promising for meeting PWUD where they are and providing trustworthy, high quality care. Yet, access to low barrier wound care remains limited. This study explored determinants of and strategies for scaling up low barrier wound care for PWUD. METHODS: We utilized a prospective sequential exploratory mixed methods design, including semi-structured 1:1 interviews, community advisory board (CAB) meetings, and an online survey. The study was conducted from April 2024-September 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and surrounding regions. We included wound care providers, administrators, and recovery specialists of low barrier sites with walk-in, flexible services and harm reduction approaches. The interviews identified determinants of scaling up low barrier wound care, guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. We then facilitated CAB meetings and conducted a survey of CAB members to identify community-generated implementation strategies and assess acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of CAB-generated strategies. We also generated evidence-based implementation strategies using the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change compilation. RESULTS: Participants identified many barriers, including stigma, social needs, local policies, unstable funding, lack of specialized knowledge, and unstandardized evidence. Promising implementation strategies include using mass media to address stigma, developing resource sharing agreements between sites, revising professional roles to spread knowledge, and building academic partnerships to develop evidence. The most acceptable, feasible, and appropriate strategy rated by the CAB was offering social needs services (e.g., food, showers) within low barrier wound care sites. CONCLUSIONS: Many factors at different levels influence the availability and quality of low barrier wound care for PWUD. Our results suggest that communities would benefit from a local needs assessment to identify and tailor strategies for scaling up care. Future work will test the effectiveness and implementation of identified strategies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH077000

  NIH · $2.8M · 2014

• NIH Grant K01MH067628

  NIH · $671k · 2010

• NIH Grant R01MH106175

  NIH · $2.7M · 2020

• NIH Grant R01MH083717

  NIH · $1.4M · 2011

• Administrative Core

  NIH · $13.8M · 2017–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Andrea Knight

  University of Toronto

  139 shared

• Zuleyha Cidav

  University of Pennsylvania

  133 shared

• Alaina M. Davis

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  130 shared

• Tamar B. Rubinstein

  Children's Hospital at Montefiore

  125 shared

• Steven C. Marcus

  116 shared

• Jennifer Pinto‐Martin

  University of Pennsylvania

  114 shared

• Marisa S. Klein‐Gitelman

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  103 shared

• Hannah Katcoff

  University of Pennsylvania

  102 shared

Awards & honors

• Kenneth E. Appel Professor
• Research Affiliate, Population Studies Center, University of…
• Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics,…
• Associate Director, Center for Autism Research, The Children…
• Senior Fellow, Center for Public Health Initiatives, Univers…