With 2018 right around the corner, hearing that one in four adults are currently dealing with mental health issues is a difficult statistic to swallow. Worse still, sixty percent of them aren’t getting the treatment they need. It goes without saying that the numbers are too high.
According to the World Health Organization, people wait up to thirty years to get the help they need. On top of that, research reports that perceived stigma increases that which a person places on herself, only serving to decrease willingness to seek help.
Stigma and preconceived notions about what it means to have a mental health issue are based on misunderstanding and lack of education about the what the person with the problem is experiencing. While the fight to eliminate stigma is in full swing, the state of mental health in the US is in shambles.
What Stops People From Getting Help
Stigma, or perceived stigma, is a significant barrier for anyone with a mental health issue. While people, in general, increasingly accept mental health issues, those facing the issues have a hard time believing it. According to the CDC, seventy-five percent of people living with mental health issues don’t believe that others will be sympathetic to their problems.
Hypothetically speaking, if we somehow got rid of the stigma, we’d still have two things significantly affecting access—availability and cost. Of which, availability breaks into two categories: location of therapist and their available time.
Location marginalizes many people who don’t live near a therapist, particularly those in rural areas. Without professionals nearby, they have no one to support them. If a professional is in the region, time for new patients is scarce. When an opening is available, the cost of treatment marginalizes anyone unable to pay the fees, leaving only a small number with access.
The common assumption here is that insurance will cover it, but that’s complicated. Many therapists are currently not accepting health insurance due to the low compensations received from insurers, making visits 100% out-of-pocket. Not an easy pill to swallow when prices range from $75-150, and higher in major cities.
This trend leads to or inconsistent sessions at best. Sporadic time with a professional eliminates the consistency a patient needs to effectively progress.
This trend leads to lack of treatment or inconsistent sessions at best. Sporadic time with a professional eliminates the consistency a patient needs to progress.
Looking at the current state of the mental health landscape, one can’t help but wonder if there is any one solution that can solve all three problems.
The Therapist Is In Your Pocket, Literally
The idea of using Artificial intelligence (AI) to help people deal with their mental health battles isn’t a brand new idea. The first chatbot therapist, ELIZA, was created in 1964. However, big companies that are working on ELIZA’s modern offspring aren’t executing very well.
Research by Stanford psychiatrist Adam Miner reports that companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon aren’t currently training their personal assistants how to effectively respond to serious mental health queries.
With big companies moving slow, startups are prepared to fill the need and serve the people who are ready for solutions that eliminate the common barriers and deliver the best that technology has to offer.
Psychiatrist Jose Hamilton founded Youper in 2015 to help patients with one of the most recurring issues he saw in his practice: social anxiety. As their technology evolved, Youper expanded to support users with general anxiety, stress, and depression.
Programmed with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) protocols, their bot provides the same leading treatment that is proven effective for various mental health issues, like anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
Hamilton believes that advances in AI and natural language processing present a unique opportunity to eliminate all three significant barriers in one fell swoop.
“Without another person taking part in the therapy interaction, there is no perceived stigma. Monthly subscriptions are far below the high price of therapy. And there is no missing out due to lack of therapists or available times,” he told me.
Bots Are Here To Assist, Not Replace
Chatbots aren’t trying to replace therapists, and creators like Hamilton doubt they ever could. Neither is the creation of AI solutions an indication that therapists aren’t providing sufficient care for their patients.
Hamilton sees apps like his as powerful allies alongside therapy and first responders for people that don’t have the access, resources, or time for traditional treatment. Also, it’s a stepping stone for those that lack the courage to do in-person therapy.
“Apps are in a great position to augment therapy and become part of an integrated care pathway. The potential to provide effective treatment to a large group that needs support is reason enough to explore these new solutions,” Hamilton said.
It may seem counterintuitive to remove the human therapist from therapy, but it is just what some people need. Research reports that people are, in fact, more willing to open up in interactions with non-human agents. Without a person, the perception of judgment disappears, and it frees people up to be more honest and authentic about their issues.
Another bonus of using an app like Youper alongside therapy is the stored data. Mood tracking, journaling, sessions completed, number of sessions during a week can all be shared with a therapist to provide insight into what a patient is doing outside of their hour on the couch.
People Are Ready And Willing To Use AI
By eliminating the barriers that prevent people from getting the mental health treatment they need, AI is opening a massive door for mental health. When the alternative is not getting any treatment at all, talking to a robot has obvious advantages.
Some question whether or not bots can understand and if that will impede therapy. However, for now, Youper’s bot is trained to interact like a friend in a conversation. While the occasional less-than-perfect answer can occur, users have reported that Youper is so accurate that they sometimes forget they are talking to a bot.
To date, over Youper has helped over fifty thousand users overcome mental health issues and seventy-two percent of which report feeling noticeably better in as little as one week. The company is currently looking for partnerships at university research centers to develop clinical trials with the app.
The future of AI in mental health is uncertain, but the potential is vast. With such alarming mental health statistics, it’s clear that new solutions are essential. AI is ready to take on the challenge and provide people with adequate treatment that eliminates or reduces stigma, increases access, and cuts cost. All are clear indications that AI has a future in mental health care.
Have you ever used a chatbot therapist? Would you? Let us know in the comments.