Help

Would you Rather Talk Mental Health with a Bot?

ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

Apparently, quite a lot of people would prefer to talk to a robot, when compared to talking to their employer or coworkers. According to this article by Ashley Stahl:

The data is staggering: pre Covid-19, one in five Americans struggle with mental health and yet, 60% of those adults didn’t receive any medical support. Despite the prevalence, a “stigma” exists in preventing people from reaching out and getting the help they need. All this privacy and stigmatization is likely why 68% of people would prefer to talk to a robot over their manager about stress and anxiety at work and 80% of people are open to having a robot as a therapist or counselor.

I wonder how many people would feel similarly had the question been about a spouse or parent? I would hope it’s not 68%, but there are certain benefits to talking to someone who won’t use it against you later, right?

I’m glad so many people are open to having a robot therapist, because as we have discussed many times, we don’t have nearly enough therapists to treat everyone who needs it, and you can’t just create more trained therapists very quickly. With good enough artificial intelligence programming, we CAN spin up more trained chat robots to meet the need. Is the programming good enough today? I don’t know. I’m guessing there is still some work to do, but at what point is it better than what we have now for so many people, which is nothing?

I’d argue that point may already be here, but, as with any kind of new treatment option, we want to first make sure that it won’t do harm. I’m hoping we can get over that hurdle safely. This could really provide some level of assistance to so many who don’t have any. It could also help people avoid the stigma attached with “going to therapy” when they can do it in an app, or from home. It sucks that there is still so much stigma attached to that, but that is the world we live in right now.

The important thing, though, is that while we continue to fight to erase the stigma, that people who need help, can find some. I’m certainly open to looking at any way technology can help us do that. Obviously, the alternatives are falling short. So why not?

Do go read Ashley’s article, it’s full of good information about mental health and work.

 

Similar Posts

  • Sharing – Now Is the Time to Re-Examine Stigma About Mental Illness

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We have gotten better at discussing some mental health issues, but there’s still so much more to do. It’s still not safe for too many people to even admit they need help with anxiety and depression, even though right now we all need support. There is still a severe shortage of help available, and we still treat other mental health issues with something other than fear.

    If not now, when? Those of us who can share our stories, should be doing exactly that. For all the people who can’t. And, maybe even more, we need to remind the world that these issues affect people everywhere, from all backgrounds. It’s not just Hollywood, and it’s not just on poor neighborhoods, it affects plenty of people that we probably come in contact with every day. People we know, people we love, people we work with, neighbors, friends, family, etc. are, or have been, struggling with their mental health.

    Maybe once we convince enough people of that, they’ll care enough to do something about it.

  • Sharing – I’m NOT going to heal everything

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    It’s all forward-looking. It celebrates how far I’ve come without constantly constantly reminding myself of what I haven’t done. In Todd’s words, it allows me to simply be human, like every other adult. In the end, isn’t that what we all want, to not see ourselves as the freak abuse survivor, but as an adult like other adults? With strengths and weaknesses, with quirks, and with success alongside failures?

    We need to let ourselves be human and create a life where we can feel safe to be human.

  • Book Review of Sorts – Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    For many survivors, their definition of healed automatically becomes a goal that can never be reached. We should quit trying to “be the person I was before the abuse” because it’s impossible. By setting that as our pass/fail goal, we sentence ourselves to a lifetime of falling short, instead of a lifetime of celebrating the gap between where we started and where we are today. We also never find a better goal that is more realistic.

    Please, take a good look at how you are defining healed. More importantly, don’t lose sight of the amount of healing and growth that you’ve already done. Be proud of it. This is your life, it’s not a pass/fail exam. It’s so much bigger than that.

  • Sharing – Mental Health Leveled Up in 2024

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    Those are good things. Properly dealing with the mental health crisis will require more research, tools, and treatment resources. These don’t grow overnight; achieving them takes years of hard work, so any progress is good news. 

    However, I agree with Time that the incoming Presidential Administration has not indicated a preference for continuing this work with research funding, new drug and therapy approvals, or respect for the science. That puts our progress at risk. 

  • Link – Best way to tackle suicide rates is to be honest about our own mental health

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    “Suicide is the leading cause of death for 15 to 44-year-old Australians, but it is not something we talk about very often. According to the Deputy CEO at Suicide Prevention Australia, Kim Borrowdale, that lack of talking is one of our main problems. “We need to talk about it more not less. We need to…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Your post must include a link to this post.

How does this work?
Write a response on your own website and include a link to this post. Then submit your response’s URL here. Your response may appear here after moderation. To update or remove it, edit or delete your original post and submit the same URL again. Learn more about Webmentions.