(#65) AI Scribes in Psychiatric Mental Health: Emerging Research and the Future of Augmented Clinical Practice

Abstract: Burnout among psychiatric clinicians continues to rise due to excessive documentation, administrative demands, and limited time for direct patient care. This project explores how AI-powered scribe tools can help alleviate these burdens, support clinical workflows, and make private practice more accessible for mental health providers. These tools use speech recognition and natural language processing to generate structured psychiatric notes during clinical encounters. Early user feedback suggests they significantly reduce documentation time while improving consistency and accuracy. In addition to note generation, integrated features support clinical decision-making by helping identify therapy modalities discussed during sessions, generating personalized medication education summaries, and selecting appropriate CPT codes in line with insurance billing standards. By streamlining documentation and coding, these tools may enable more psychiatric providersóespecially nurse practitioners and early-career cliniciansóto launch or expand private practices with less administrative overhead. This, in turn, increases patient access to care. Ongoing research focuses on the ethical implementation of AI in mental health, including transparency, patient privacy, and the legal frameworks that will shape adoption. Legislation such as the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the American Data Privacy Protection Act (ADPPA), and emerging state-level policies will influence how these technologies are governed, reimbursed, and integrated into clinical practice. This work presents a forward-looking model for how AI tools can reduce clinician burden, improve documentation quality, and expand mental health care access, all while supporting safe and responsible implementation in a changing regulatory landscape.Short Description: This poster explores how AI scribe tools are helping psychiatric providers reduce documentation time, support decision-making, and expand access to care. It highlights features such as therapy recognition, medication education, and CPT coding support, while addressing AI's legal and ethical considerations in mental health. The session offers insights for clinicians interested in adopting AI to improve workflow, reduce burnout, and navigate upcoming changes in healthcare regulation.Name of Sponsoring Organization(s): PMHScribe, Inc.