Improving Mental Health Services: A 50-Year Journey from Randomized Experiments to Artificial Intelligence and Precision Mental Health

Leonard Bickman, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University

February 2, 2021

This presentation describes the current state of mental health services, identifies critical problems, and suggests how to solve them. I focus on the potential contributions of artificial intelligence and precision mental health to improving mental health services. Toward that end, I draw upon my own research, which has changed over the last half-century, to highlight the need to transform the way we conduct mental health services research and program development. I identify exemplars from the emerging literature on artificial intelligence and precision approaches to treatment in which there is an attempt to personalize or fit the treatment to the client in order to produce more effective interventions.