Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (e.g., sexual abuse and maternal violence). Clinical research highlights the significant impact ACEs have on youth's mental health similar to other youth-related issues like traditional bullying and cyberbullying. However, research focused on the intersection of these two are limited. We report the results from a qualitative study that used electronic health record (EHR) data and clinical narratives from Parkview Behavioral Health hospital (n=719) to better understand the presentation of ACEs in patients who indicated cyber/bullying contributed to their inpatient hospital admission. Our deductive thematic analyses on the clinical narratives/notes and diagnoses highlight the connection of ACEs with cyber/bullying and other clinical diagnoses like depression, anxiety, PTSD, and ADD/ADHD. Additionally, our results point to potential impacts of the gender spectrum and other non-ACE indicators like adoption and the need for Department of Child Services (DCS). The outcome of this study provides distinct computational and clinical design guidelines for better collaborative decision making in healthcare, including the need for ACEs screening as standard-of-care within acute mental health settings. CAUTION: This paper includes graphic contents about adverse childhood traumas and events.

Early recovery after substance use disorder (SUD) treatment is a period of high risk. The majority of people will relapse, often within weeks of completing treatment. In the modern era, re-entry upon completion of treatment includes both digital and non-digital spaces. Digital spaces, including social media, present unique challenges to the recovery journey. However, research has rarely focused on this critical period and the ways in which technology affect it. We conducted in-depth interviews with 29 participants (8 recoverees and 21 support professionals) across two treatment sites to explore this gap. Using an inductive thematic approach, we gained insights into digital social re-entry, a term that we introduce to describe the process of re-engaging with social spaces online. We describe the work of digital social re-entry, which includes 1) remaking social networks, 2) maintaining boundaries, 3) managing triggering content, 4) resisting access to substances, and 5) shifting personal identity. We conclude by characterizing strategies for navigating digital social re-entry and discussing ways to better support recoverees during this aspect of their recovery journey.

A growing body of research in HCI focuses on understanding how social media and other social technologies impact a given user’s mental health, including eating disorders. In this paper, we review the results of an interview study with 10 clinicians spanning various specialties who treat people with eating disorders, in order to understand the clinical contexts of eating disorders and social media use. We found various tensions related to clinician comfort and education into the (mis)use of technologies and balancing the positive and negative aspects of social media use within active disease states as well as in recovery. Understanding these tensions as well as the variation in the current process of diagnosing patients is a critical component in connecting HCI research focused on eating disorders to clinical practice and ultimately assessing how digital self-harm could be addressed clinically in the future.

The use of legal and illegal drugs has grown to such an acute level that it now represents a public health crisis in the United States. To support clinical treatments of substance use disorders (SUDs), formal non-clinical peer recovery support programs pairing coaches with people new to recovery are gaining in popularity. Using a user-centered design approach, we designed a mobile application to support the peer coach recovery program of a health system. The application addresses the needs associated with the coaches' workflows, encompasses social supports for recoverees, and provides a space for fostering the coach-recoveree relationship. Finally, we then evaluated a prototype with recoverees and program coaches. Through this process, we identified tensions between stakeholder needs and translated these tensions into design features and future design considerations.