WUSTL ichasm

On September 24th, lab members Erin, Elecia, Jenny, Brandon, and Layna attended a bingo fundraiser night hosted by the St. Louis organization Addiction Is Real. Both Erin and Brandon won rounds of bingo! Addiction Is Real is a nonprofit dedicated to educating parents about how to have conversations with their kids about the risks of substance use. We hope to partner with this organization again in the future!

September is National Recovery Month, and we have been excited to connect with our partners for community events! On September 14th, some of our team members attended the Recovery Coalition of Greater St. Louis’ 2024 Recovery Fest and helped with event set up and selling event t-shirts to fundraise for the organization. They heard hope stories from community members involved in different recovery centers and connected with colleagues at partner organizations, like Hilljack House, St. Louis Empowerment Center, and ARCA.
Eastern Region-Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers

Our lab loves to get involved in community events related to substance use! On August 26th and 28th, lab members Elecia, Jordan, Will, Jenny, and Layna went to 2 of the JeffCo Recovery Week events: the Open House that offered wellness resources to attendees and the Lunch & Inspiration session, where we got to hear stories of substance use recovery from those with lived experience. On August 31st, Elecia and Jenny attended the Black Breastfeeding Week Celebration hosted by Doula lab. Elecia presented our uMAT-R program to attendees, and they also listened to presentations from other St. Louis region providers.

Last Thursday, members of the iCHASM team met up at Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles for a team-building event. Though most of us had little experience with the sport, we had a great time getting some exercise and getting to know each other outside of work. We are enjoying planning lab social events every 1-2 months to have some fun with each other outside the work environment!

On Tuesday 7/24/24, members of our team attended the 2024 Jefferson County Mental Health Summit at Festus High School. They listened to presentations on the impact of va**ng and substance use on the school environment, anxiety in students, the impact of trauma on families, and a keynote address from Senator Holly Rehder. We also connected with colleagues from Compass Health and Chestnut Health Systems. As we continue to learn more about youth and young adult va**ng habits and develop app interventions for this population in our lab, it was great to hear from the students and administrators on their insights into student va**ng habits and the necessary education needed to help support them.
Compass Health Network Chestnut Health Systems PreventEd Jefferson County Health Department Provident

Recently, our PI Dr. Cavazos Rehg traveled to Uganda, meeting with collaborators based in the Brown School, Muni University and other local universities in Uganda to establish partnerships between universities. In our lab, we are currently working with Brown School collaborators to pilot test an app-based intervention for adolescents with HIV and depression in Uganda and hope to continue collaborating on projects involving mHealth and mental health research.

iCHASM Staff Spotlight: Will

Will is from Springfield, MO & St. Louis!

He is passionate about using research as a tool to advocate for vulnerable populations.

In our lab, he loves being able to engage with community members and use research to voice their perspectives.

On days off he loves watching video essays, listening to hip-hop, and checking out new parks and restaurants with friends. He’s also learning how to play piano.

A fun fact is that he’s been to over a dozen stand-up comedy shows in the past year.

His favorite quote is: “We gon’ be alright” ~ Kendrick Lamar

Our collaborators at UTHealth and University of South Carolina leveraged large language models to analyze Reddit users’ intentions to quit va**ng and compared the results of a GPT-4 model and human evaluators. The GPT-4 model was able to remain consistent to annotation guidelines and detect nuanced quit-va**ng intentions. These findings emphasize how GPT-4 is a useful tool for improving large scale social media data analysis, particularly when identifying users’ quitting intentions. Dr. Cavazos-Rehg has been working closely with these collaborators in the development of these detection models to optimize proactive outreach strategies on social media with the future goal of delivering timely, accessible mHealth interventions for va**ng cessation. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/yupv6kmt

Utilizing Large Language Models to Identify Reddit Users Considering Va**ng Cessation for Digital Interventions The widespread adoption of social media platforms globally not only enhances users' connectivity and communication but also emerges as a vital channel for the dissemination of health-related information, thereby establishing social media data as an invaluable organic data resource for public health....

Happy Juneteenth from the iCHASM Team!

Juneteenth is a national holiday celebrated on June 19th commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed and is a nationwide celebration of Black liberation. It is important for people of all racial/ethnic identities to recognize this holiday through actions that combat anti-Black racism. Here are some examples of ways to observe Juneteenth:
- Wishing others a “Happy Juneteenth”
- Attend a local Juneteenth festival, concert, or other event.
- Educate yourself about both Black culture and the history of anti-Black racism in the U.S.
- Support Black-owned businesses and restaurants.
- Donate to charities/nonprofits that serve the needs of Black individuals.

Below are links to upcoming local events:
- 2024 BLK Family Reunion Festival - https://tinyurl.com/4b89s3tj
- JuneteenthSTL 2024: City of Dellwood, Parade & more - https://tinyurl.com/3csw6rdj
- 3rd Annual Juneteenth “FREE-DOME” Celebration - https://tinyurl.com/32hnazuc
- A Celebration of Black Composers - https://tinyurl.com/5dwwwnp7
- WUSM Juneteenth Jubilee - https://tinyurl.com/3sknes5e

Read more about Juneteenth here: https://tinyurl.com/bdtwx367

Research has found that language-based computer models were able to predict depression severity for white people but not for Black people in the U.S. People from different racial/ethnic backgrounds may use different language to describe their depression and mental health symptoms. It is important to include diverse datasets in the testing of machine learning models for mental health to ensure accuracy of these models among diverse populations. In our lab, we collaborate on multiple projects involving the use of machine learning models to detect mental health conditions and substance use. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/3rsrvrxa

JaNiene Peoples presented a poster at the 2022 College on Problems of Drug Dependence’s (CPDD) 84th annual Scientific Meeting. The poster focused on how “lack of readiness to stop using” is associated with substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms and other barriers to treatment.

🔷 iCHASM STAFF SPOTLIGHT 🔷

China is home for Xiao but she has been living in Saint Louis for 6 years and counting!

Xiao's favorite part of working in the iCHASM lab is our lovely team members; everyone provides support to each other.

A fun fact about Xiao is that she loves fried chicken!

Xiao is most passionate about learning new skills/ideas/topics and applying them to answer research questions.

On Xiao’s days off she enjoys cooking, baking, playing with her chinchilas, and going for hikes with her dog.

A mantra Xiao lives by is “don’t change who you are”.

Thank you for all you do, Xiao!