Health systems are rapidly adopting AI in healthcare, and behavioral health leaders have taken note of what is — and is not — working. From preventing clinician burnout to creating tools for emotional support for caregivers, here are five systems integrating AI into behavioral healthcare:
1. Sentara (Norfolk, Va.): Sentara is working on an AI risk stratification model designed to predict which ED patients presenting with behavioral health issues can be safely discharged.
The model has cleared its first major hurdle, Ken Dunham, MD, executive director of medical services for behavioral health, told Becker’s. In comparisons against clinical decision-making without AI support, it has proved at least non-inferior. The research review is ongoing, but the potential upside is significant.
“For a system our size, if it performs as expected, it can potentially save thousands of hours a year in ED behavioral health length of stay,” he said of Sentara, which operates 17 emergency departments and 12 acute care hospitals across its three-state footprint.
Dr. Dunham is deliberate about the process, reviewing the evidence before moving to implementation, but the direction of travel is clear.
2. Centerstone (Nashville, Tenn.): Centerstone operates 988 lifeline services in Tennessee, Illinois and Missouri. In addition to 120 hours of training for staff, the organization uses an AI-support simulation training, ReflexAI. The tool allows teams to adapt education around emerging crisis trends and operationalize patterns emerging in live calls and texts.
For example, if staff identify an increase in LGBTQ+ calls centered on high schoolers coming out to their parents, the simulation training platform can create text-based scenarios to help staff prepare before encountering similar situations in live interactions, Becky Stoll, executive vice president of crisis services at the organization, told Becker’s.
3. Cleveland Clinic: AI scribes have changed the documentation game for providers, Leopoldo Pozuelo, MD, center director of adult behavioral health at Cleveland Clinic, told Becker’s.
“It’s liberating,” Dr. Pozuelo said. “The fact that you can have an encounter with a patient and focus on that patient with all the cognitive skills that are required of us, especially in the ambulatory setting … both in psychiatry and psychology … and it’s joyful.”
The system introduced the AI scribe first in primary and specialty care, then in behavioral health. Its purpose is to support providers with daily documentation, freeing them to focus on patients. Dr. Pozuelo said he’s never seen a tool energize clinicians the way this one has.
“I have a 73-year-old master clinician psychiatrist who uses herself as a testament to how this technology is working,” Dr. Pozuelo said. “She’s a little bit technology phobic. … And she has gone out there in our department to say, ‘This has been transformative. If I can do it, anybody can do it.’”
4. Providence (Renton, Wash.): Providence’s Well Being Trust launched emotional CPR — connect, partner, response — an AI-driven role-play training tool designed to democratize mental health crisis response skills and build confidence across the healthcare workforce, Arpan Waghray, MD, CEO of the foundation, told Becker’s.
Through its No One Cares Alone program — which combines proactive outreach, leadership training and peer support to Providence’s 125,000 caregivers — the system created an interactive AI chatbot training model. The tool guides caregivers through real-time mental health scenarios.
For example, a healthcare worker might join a remote meeting and notice their colleague seems off. Initiating a conversation in this scenario can be difficult, especially if colleague indicates suicidal thoughts. The training helps caregivers prepare to respond and offer support, with each simulation designed to reflect nuanced situations.
5. ABA Centers (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.): ABA Centers built a diagnostic team and a prescription tool that ties therapy hours directly to a person’s individual support needs, according to Quatiba Davis, chief clinical officer, told Becker’s. The goal is to eliminate guesswork and arm clinicians with evidence when payers question higher-intensity treatment plans.
The company’s sister organization, Curative AI, supports this model with a value-based care platform tracking outcomes across more than 1,800 patients. The system generates visuals and prompts to help clinicians spot regression early and suggests intervention programs. Clinicians are trained to analyze data and make data-driven decisions.
“AI is also not the end-all, be-all,” Ms. Davis said. “It’s a prompted system to support clinicians in their own work that can be manipulated by clinicians. So if a chart shows me you should run this intervention again, and either clinicians say, ‘No, I have enough data,’ then I can put that into the system.”
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