TAMPA, Fla. — Artificial Intelligence is finding its way into all parts of our lives. Now, in the mental health field, it’s making some jobs easier.
“I've been in the community mental health field for over 26 years. And I think one of the biggest changes that we've seen, particularly since the pandemic, is really, the willingness of people to seek out care,” said Lisa Williams, the regional CEO of Centerstone.
Centerstone is a nonprofit group specializing in mental health and substance use disorder treatments. Williams said behavioral health care has come a long way, but loneliness and isolation continue to be a challenge.
“You can be in groups of people and be surrounded by folks and still feel lonely and still feel isolated,” said Williams.
Williams also believes AI has helped change the field in assisting clinicians in improving their documentation when meeting with patients.
“So, there are tools like Eleos that basically listen to your session and transcribe and create clinical notes that improve the quality of documentation and decrease the time that clinicians spend documenting their services so that they can spend more time providing quality care to the folks that we serve,” explained Williams.
A recent study by Centerstone revealed the use of Eleos Health decreased the amount of time clinicians spent on documentation by 75%. And there is another use of AI for therapists.
“To assist clinicians in training to implement practices that are evidence-based. So through A-I, the clinician can, at the end of a session, get feedback on the specific strategies they used and how those strategies align with what the actual best practices,” said Williams.
Now, patients may be using AI to help with their own mental health care in between sessions.
“One of the potential uses for A-I in the future is for in between therapy sessions for patients to connect and get additional support, that is personalized to them based upon the care that, they're receiving and based upon their treatment plan. So that's a future use of AI,” explained Williams.
But she doesn’t believe AI will ever compare to a clinician listening to your struggles with mental illness or addiction.
“Nothing is ever going to replace the interaction and the engagement and the empathy that you get from a fellow human being,” said Williams.
Centerstone has locations all over Florida.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental well-being or addiction, you can call 1-877-HOPE 1-2-3.
Share Your Story with Wendy
Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Wendy Ryan is dedicated to helping our neighbors navigate the important topic of mental health. For years, she’s been connecting people to resources, listening to their challenges, and sharing their stories to decrease the stigma. You can connect with Wendy by using the form below.
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