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Today mental health providers at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California in the Central Valley, ended a 24-hour strike. The company's future use of artificial intelligence is one of the reasons for that strike. This comes at a time when a growing number of providers and health systems are adopting AI in mental health care. NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee reports.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Ilana Marcucci-Morris is a licensed clinical social worker at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. She says her job started to change in May of last year.
ILANA MARCUCCI-MORRIS: I've been reassigned from triage to other duties.
CHATTERJEE: That's because she says Kaiser is transforming its triage system.
MARCUCCI-MORRIS: What used to always be a 10- to 15-minute screening from a licensed clinician like myself is now being conducted by unlicensed lay operators following a script, or e-visits, so an app is triaging members' care needs.
CHATTERJEE: Marcucci-Morris is among the 2,400 Kaiser mental health care providers who went on strike for a day to protest these changes.
MARCUCCI-MORRIS: Part of our unfair labor practice strike really is about the erosion of licensed triage within the health plan.
CHATTERJEE: An erosion that she and her colleagues think is paving the way for artificial intelligence to take over their jobs. Kaiser Permanente told NPR in an email that the company does not use AI to make medical or any other care decisions. But the concerns of striking therapists are shared by others in mental health care, says psychologist Vaile Wright.
VAILE WRIGHT: There is a lot of fear and anxiety about AI, and in particular, fear around AI replacing jobs.
CHATTERJEE: Wright is senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association. She says she's yet to see those fears come true.
WRIGHT: I have not seen within mental health care any jobs be replaced by AI as of yet, and that's in part because there are no AI digital solutions that can replace human-driven psychotherapy or care.
CHATTERJEE: That said, many health systems and therapists are increasingly using AI, especially for certain kinds of jobs.
WRIGHT: One clear, positive use case of AI tools is in the use of improving efficiencies around documentation and other automated types of activities.
CHATTERJEE: Like billing insurance companies or updating electronic health records - time-consuming tasks. Tech companies are racing to design AI tools for the mental health care field, says psychiatrist Dr. John Torous. He directs digital psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
JOHN TOROUS: A lot of the tools are exciting, but they're not well-tested.
CHATTERJEE: Some tech companies are also making chatbots for health systems to do triage and patient assessments. Torous says whether providers like it or not, AI is here to stay.
TOROUS: I think AI is going to transform the future of mental health care for better.
CHATTERJEE: So, he says, providers can no longer refuse to use the technology.
TOROUS: 'Cause if you take this approach and companies come in with products that may be good, may be really bad and dangerous, we won't know how to evaluate them.
CHATTERJEE: Given the absence of regulations, he says mental health practitioners have to be proactive about learning how to use AI tools and make sure those tools are effective and safe. Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR News.
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