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A review published in Science examines how AI tools, including smartwatches, mobile devices, and chatbots, could support patients at every stage of mental health care, from pre-treatment monitoring of behavior and symptoms, to assisting clinicians during diagnosis and treatment, to preventing relapse and tracking recovery afterward.

While AI mental health tools are rapidly expanding access to support, experts are sounding the alarm on serious risks — including the inability to adapt to emotional nuance, potential data privacy gaps, and real-world cases where AI chatbots have caused harm to vulnerable users rather than helping them.

A UChicago clinical psychologist developed a new scoring tool to objectively measure how well health interventions are truly personalized, finding that better tailoring in even just the first session — where providers accurately identify a patient's real-life barriers and collaboratively build a plan around them — predicted stronger engagement and improved health behaviors a full year later.

The Sheboygan Police Department's crisis co-responder program, which pairs trained mental health professionals from agency Elevate with police officers on mental health and substance abuse calls, has cut involuntary hospital commitments by more than half since launching, dropping from a high of 144 in 2021 to just 51 in 2024 and 68 in 2025. Rather than defaulting to emergency detention, co-responders use de-escalation, risk assessment, and community referrals to stabilize clients and connect them to voluntary care, with Elevate reporting an 85% client stabilization rate and a strict policy of not discharging anyone until they are linked to resources.

The program recently expanded its role to also support police dispatch and repeat callers — a critical addition given that 23% of clients served last year were youth — helping to deflect individuals away from the criminal justice system entirely when there is no safety threat. Building on its success, the program expanded countywide at the start of 2026, with two co-responders now also stationed at the Sheboygan Falls Police Department, as other Wisconsin communities including Waukesha, Outagamie, and Milwaukee counties launch similar models.

The Cathedral City Police Department has launched a Community Behavioral Assessment Team (CBAT), pairing licensed behavioral health clinician Anna Silva with Officer Jose Arellano to respond to mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness-related 911 calls, part of a growing movement across California rethinking how law enforcement handles behavioral health crises.

Acting Police Chief Rick Sanchez noted that these situations are often not criminal in nature but require expertise and care beyond traditional policing, and that the CBAT model allows teams to de-escalate more effectively, connect individuals to services, and reduce unnecessary arrests and emergency room visits. Research from Stanford's John W. Gardner Center supports the approach, finding that pairing officers with mental health clinicians reduces the likelihood of costlier and more intrusive interventions.