Hospitals are increasingly using AI to sort mental health patients – deciding who gets seen, how quickly, and what kind of help. According to a Capital & Main investigation, the workers doing this job say it’s putting patients at risk.

More than a dozen therapists and clinicians in California and Wisconsin told the same story: the technology is being rolled out too fast, and vulnerable people are paying for it.

Part of the problem is that patients are now expected to chase their own care – booking through an app, calling a number, following up themselves. Others are steered towards meditation apps or short online programmes when they actually need urgent, hands-on treatment. Some come out of a 12-week app-based course in worse shape than when they started.

At Rogers Behavioral Health in Wisconsin, staff say an AI intake system has landed people in the wrong level of care. In one case a patient at severe risk of suicide was placed in the lightest form of treatment available. Group classes regularly include someone who shouldn’t be there – and when they can’t cope, it tips into a crisis that pulls staff away from everyone else.

For the clinicians, the deeper point is simple. As former Rogers therapist Kate Zolandz put it, therapy works because you build a relationship with your therapist – and an app can’t do that.

source: https://capitalandmain.com/