This brief report was published by Mental Health Europe, and targets policymakers, service providers and any other stakeholder interested in the applications and impact of AI in mental healthcare.
This study explores the opportunities, risks, and ethical considerations surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in mental healthcare and provides recommendations for their responsible implementation and regulation.
In mental healthcare, AI systems are used in diverse ways, from administrative tasks to communication platforms, professional decision support, digital therapies and patient monitoring.
AI systems offer significant potential benefits, including improved accessibility to mental health support, reducing administrative burdens in healthcare systems. Proponents also advance AI for personalising treatments, improving diagnostic accuracy, and supporting timely interventions.
However, AI systems in mental health also pose serious risks. At the individual level, concerns include safety risks, privacy violations and inadequate informed consent. Broader challenges include strengthening inequalities or creating new ones, oversurveillance, reinforcing individualistic views of mental health, depersonalisation of care, and diverting limited resources.
By highlighting the risks specific to this sector and proposing measures to address them, this study lays the foundation for critical assessment of whether the recently adopted AI Act is fit for purpose in the case of mental healthcare and how potential gaps can be addressed by policymakers.