Mental health professionals’ perceptions of using chatbots in mental health promotion and care: A cross-sectional survey study

To address the urgent need for accessible and flexible mental health services, digital technologies are increasingly researched and utilized in the prevention and management of mental health conditions. Chatbots, autonomous computer programs using deterministic scripted conversations or artificial intelligence, are one modality for delivering digital mental health services. Chatbots are potentially free from stigma and easily scalable. Despite the benefits, uncertainties and misconceptions about their role and use in supporting mental health remain. Successful integration of chatbots into existing services requires endorsement and trust from mental health professionals, but their perceptions on the future use of chatbots remain understudied.

A cross-sectional survey of Finnish mental health professionals (n=784) examined factors influencing their willingness to recommend mental health chatbots to their clients or patients. Desirable chatbot features and possible use cases for chatbots were also queried. The data was analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis and multinomial logistic regression.

Opinions on recommending chatbots to clients or patients over the next five years were divided. The findings suggest that when mental health professionals perceive a high level of usefulness in a mental health chatbot, they are more likely to recommend it to their patients or clients. The perceived level of usefulness was the strongest predictor for recommending chatbots to a patient or a client across all groups, including those who were unlikely, likely, or very likely to recommend chatbots. Based on this study, mental health chatbots should be useful, easy to comprehend, professional, and reliable. Professionals indicated that chatbots could assist in various tasks, such as sending reminders, instructing exercises, and monitoring.

Finnish mental health professionals highly valued the usefulness and straightforward features of chatbots. To design mental health chatbots that professionals would recommend, it is important to ensure that their views are applied during the development process.