Associate professor,
division of child and adolescent psychiatry
Eraka Bath, MD is a child, adolescent and forensic psychiatrist who is an Associate Professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Vice Chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine. She has a long-standing interest in health care disparities, minority and community mental health, with particular interest in the underserved populations of foster care and juvenile justice involved youth. Dr. Bath specializes in diagnostic assessment and forensic consultation with adolescents, with an emphasis on high-risk youth, including those with histories of trauma, juvenile delinquency and foster care placement. Dr. Bath’s portfolio of research has included funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Drug Abuse, PCORI, California Community Foundation, UCLA Pritzker Center and the LA County Dept. of Probation. Her research focuses on systems involved population in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Specific areas include determining the efficacy of short-term family based interventions for youth involved in the delinquency system and adapting emerging technologies to increase engagement in court-referred mental health and substance use treatment for youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation . Dr. Bath maintains a private practice focused on forensic consultation to attorneys and governmental agencies, on a variety of cases involving mental health and the law including, juvenile competency to stand trial, commercially sexually exploited youth, fitness and waiver to adult court, personal injury, PTSD, child maltreatment, education rights, risk management, termination of parental rights and child custody matters.