Evaluating the Role of Virtual Whole Health in PC-MHI 

The COVID-19 pandemic facilitated simultaneous paradigm shifts in healthcare delivery: virtual care (telehealth and videoconferencing) and the need for “Whole Person” healthcare that targets mind, body, and spirit, per recent US Surgeon General1 and National Academy of Medicine2 calls-to-action. The pandemic also highlighted treatment delivery inequities involving rural Veterans. The current proposal will address these […]



Behaviors and Executive Skills in T21 (BEST21)

We are conducting a study to understand the role of problem-solving in challenging behaviors for children with Down syndrome so that we can better understand the development of and treat these behaviors. If you agree to participate, this study will involve questionnaires, some of which may be completed at home. You would also attend an […]

Improving treatment strategies and clinical outcomes in patients with first-episode psychosis and substance use disorders

Our project will seek to identify factors associated with gaps in transitions of care for psychiatric inpatients who presented with substance-induced psychosis (SIP) for the first time. We will analyze historical electronic health record data of patients who were treated for psychosis at Harborview Medical Center. We will test the hypotheses that (1) treatment with […]

Strengthening financial literacy for people living with serious mental illness

Improved financial literacy among people living with serious mental illness (SMI) is associated with a higher quality of life, fewer hospitalizations, and better treatment adherence. Yet people living with SMI frequently express how their lack of financial knowledge has negative personal consequences and that they don’t know where to turn for assistance. This project will […]

Using Large Language Models to identify video platform interactions indicating suicide risk

This project will identify interaction patterns with online video platforms that are indicative of suicide risk, focusing on YouTube and TikTok. Leveraging archival data including over 5 million interaction events collected from participants in previous research, we will use combinations of neural language models to identify suicide-related “like”, “search” and “watch” events. We will then […]


Developing an artificial intelligence digital navigator system to support patients’ use of technology-based interventions

The objective of this project is to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create COACH: an on-device AI-driven digital navigator system that will support patients’ effective use of Digital Mental Health Technologies. We aim to: 1. Develop a prototype chatbot-based digital navigator; 2. Conduct preliminary evaluation of the system including lab-based usability testing with healthy participants […]

Making generative AI safe for people with mental health conditions

Hundreds of millions of people are already using Large Language Models (LLMs), including for mental health purposes, which has led to inadvertent harms. Critically, people with mental health conditions may be especially vulnerable to such harms. In this project, we will develop the first computational framework to systematically quantify and benchmark the risks that LLMs […]