Kelly Zuromski, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
 
Developing Scalable Assessments and Interventions for Suicide: Opportunities Using Ubiquitous Computing
Most people who die by suicide do not have contact with mental health providers in the year preceding their death. Further, suicidal individuals at highest risk are least likely to seek out treatment (i.e., the help-negation effect). One potential solution to this lack of health care utilization is to develop scalable approaches to assess and treat suicide risk that are not reliant on use of traditional mental health care services. In this talk, Dr. Zuromski will discuss how harnessing technology (e.g., smartphones, wearable sensors) may improve our ability to identify at-risk individuals and, potentially, to intervene on suicide risk in real-time. She will discuss her short- and long-term research agenda in this area, focused both on assessment and treatment of suicide risk. First, she will describe short-term goals in which she will use real-time monitoring via smartphones and wearable physiological monitors to study proximal risk factors for suicide in high-risk populations. Second, she will detail both short- and long-term research goals using these technologies to deliver brief, personalized interventions targeting transdiagnostic risk factors for suicide and frequently co-occurring psychopathology. Challenges of utilizing these technologies will be discussed, along with potential for expansion to other areas of ubiquitous computing (e.g., smart home technologies).

This free lecture is part of the candidate review for an assistant professor position in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology.