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Mental Health Crisis: Innovations and Solutions with Vaile Wright
Dr. Vaile Wright, Senior Director of the Office of Health Care Innovation in the Practice Directorate of the American Psychological Association takes us inside the intersection of innovation and mental health care. As one in twenty adults faces serious mental health challenges—and provider shortages persist—Wright explores how technology is stepping in to bridge the gap. She spotlights promising tools like AI that ease clinician burden when consumer tools blur the line between support and misinformation.
This episode is a call to action for future healthcare leaders. With mental health needs at an all-time high, Wright emphasizes the need for bold thinking, ethical innovation, and compassionate leadership.
Well, thank you very much, Melissa, for that introduction and a warm welcome today to our guest, Vaile Wright. And I got to see Vaile present at the HIMSS conference this past February and was just totally blown away by your presentation and I did a pretty thorough LinkedIn posting on it and I noticed some other people posted Vaile a superstar at the American Psychological Association. So, Vaile, first, if you can just tell us a little bit about yourself and what the American Psychological Association is, Sure, and thank you so much for having me and for that flattery.
Vaile Wright:I doubt I deserve it, but I'll still take it, at least so thanks again and nice to be here.
Vaile Wright:So, as you said, I'm Vaile Wright, I am a licensed psychologist and I serve as the senior director for the Office of Healthcare Innovation at the American Psychological Association. So APA is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. We have over 170,000 members who represent clinicians and researchers and students and educators, and you know what our goal is is really to provide, to promote psychological science, to benefit society and improve people's lives, and it's an exciting place to get to be. It's certainly a very chaotic time in the country and as well as within healthcare, and so there's a lot of things that we're working on to try to ensure that we can reduce people's suffering as quickly as possible, and in my role at APA, a lot of that is looking at the intersection of technology and behavioral health. So how can we use emerging technologies in safe and effective ways to really address access, improve efficiencies and, again, just try to make things better for a wide variety of people?
Anthony Stanowski:That was one of the parts that really excited my imagination during your presentation, because you did talk about this incredible pent-up demand. If you would and I don't know, demand's not the best term to kind of use in this but one in 20 adults have significant mental health crisis, and how do you kind of address that? And what was fascinating to me is you looked at a variety of platforms that are out there, both on a consumer basis platforms like Calm and in a more therapeutic kind of basis too, around some AI parts around there, and of course, you're you're in this fascinating organization called the health innovation part within the American Psychological Association. So you're right at the, the, the precipice of all this stuff. So talk about what you see, what you see there now, and what do you see kind of coming in that areas?
Vaile Wright:Yeah. So I mean, I don't think it's going to surprise anybody on this podcast when I say that we're experiencing a mental health crisis, not just in the US, but actually globally, and part of the challenge is a workforce shortage. So we have just not enough behavioral health providers across the entire spectrum of types of providers. So, whether you're talking about psychologists or psychiatrists or master's level providers, there just will never be enough to address the crisis that we're seeing. And it's not just that we don't have enough people, it's that we don't have them in the right places across the country. We don't have necessarily the right skills when it comes to language or, you know, across the lifespan, of who you treat, and we have a lot of providers that are very disincentivized from taking insurance, and so that provides even more access issues.
Vaile Wright:So, you know, I think where we're trying to look at is how can we use technologies and other types of interventions to address this problem? It's a really complex problem. We can't just manufacture more people and expect that we're going to be able to meet everybody's needs. We've got to be more creative. We've got to in some ways really disrupt the healthcare model that we have in place. You know we wait for people to be in crisis to seek out services, and then we expect them to receive one type of service weekly 45 minutes psychotherapy and or medication, and that's it. We have one model, and I just don't think that that's going to work. We can't keep doing the same things we've always done and expect something different.
Anthony Stanowski:I believe they call that crazy same things we've always done and expect something different. I believe they call that crazy. Yeah, that's a famous quote out there. It's the definition of insanity, right, when you keep doing the same thing over and over and not getting the results you're looking for. It was, again, a really interesting approach to talk about. I mean, you're looking at a workforce shortage and I think what we're seeing in psychology is certainly also kind of mirrored on the acute end of the business as well, the acute end of the healthcare field as well, as you know, in therapy, physical therapist and nursing and all the like. But your approach and I think the exploration of AI tools is an interesting one. And let me kind of also say we've worked with Dr Reggie Herzlinger at Harvard Business School to look at healthcare innovation, and her comment is innovation is not just invention, it's understanding how to use invention to make a difference.
Anthony Stanowski:I love that I think you're doing it in this respect, what are some of the things that you're seeing kind of happening in there?
Vaile Wright:I think right now, we're seeing two major trends as it relates to AI within behavioral health. One is and you're seeing this in the more physical health as well as the use of AI ambient scribes to help with automating documentation is slower than within physical health, in part because a lot of mental health care providers don't have electronic health records, and so if you're working in a large system, they might have put an AI scribe in there without actually even asking you about it, with the expectation that you use it. It's a little different, I think, with mental health. I think these are interesting. I think that they provide some interesting opportunities. I've talked to one psychologist who said that, because of accessibility issues, she couldn't type as well as she used to, and so using the AI scribe was actually really helpful. Is it going to solve the mental health crisis? No, you know it doesn't make more hours in the day, but what it could do, I think, is a couple of things. One is it could help reduce burnout, keeping people in the field longer because nobody went into healthcare to document their notes right. That's just not part of why we do this. We do this because we want to help people, so I think that's one area that could help. I've also heard, at least anecdotally, patients say, particularly again in more physical health settings, that they feel like their provider is listening to them more, that they're not typing at the same time, and I think that that opens up opportunities for people to be more forthcoming with their mental health needs. Now we still have to address the access issue, but if we can get people to even just talk to providers about what's going on, that's a good, important step. So that's the first trend I see.
Vaile Wright:The second big trend I see is the use of AI chatbots to address mental health needs, and again, I'm sure people on the podcast have seen the multiple, multiple articles that have been coming out about this, and I think there's a lot of promise there, but there's also a lot of challenge because not all chatbots are the same.
Vaile Wright:So I think there will be a future where, you see, mental health chatbots using AI that are rooted in psychological science, have been rigorously tested, are co-created with such and matter experts for the purposes of addressing mental health needs, and I think that that could actually address some of the mental health crisis because it has the potential to meet people where they are and provide them with support at, say, 2 am when they're experiencing real distress, but that's not really what we're seeing on the market right now. What we see on the market is just a wide variety of chatbots that weren't built for mental health purposes, but are being used for them because people are desperate, and we will seek out self-help wherever we can find it, and so, while I've also heard there are some benefits for those too, it also concerns me because we know there've been some really tragic consequences, as well, do you want to talk about some of those, or can you talk about some of those?
Vaile Wright:Yeah, absolutely. So. There have been a couple of really high profile lawsuits against character AI, which is one of these generative AI chatbots that market themselves as companions. They don't say they're for mental health purposes, but, as you can imagine when you look at the research, most people are using these to address their emotional well-being needs. It's just kind of you know, sort of not that surprising really I mean, people you know are struggling with relationships and with work and with being lonely, and so they're going to seek these out, these chatbots is that they allow their users, the developers of the avatars, to market themselves as therapists and psychologists, even though they aren't, and so it gives this false sense of credibility, and what we've seen is some of the advice they have given is not just not helpful, it's actually harmful, because the goal of a lot of these chatbots isn't to be helpful, it's to keep you on the platform, and they do that by being unconditionally appealing and validating, and they tell you exactly what you want to hear, which is the antithesis of therapy.
Anthony Stanowski:Yeah Well, Wayne, that's a lot of how, what social media is doing in this basis too, that kind of continued feedback loop of I believe this and other people believe it, so therefore it must be right.
Vaile Wright:Yeah, 100 percent. I think a lot of the principles that make social media addicting are the same kinds of principles that make these AI chatbots also very addicting.
Anthony Stanowski:Yeah, well, I asked you on here, you know I mean part of it was to understand, I think, what's going on in this separate field. But I, during the course of my career, I've got to meet some great executives to lead who were leading some of the health systems and hospitals out there, facilities out there around mental health, and you know, I know you know a little bit about CAMI and what we do and we accredit healthcare management education programs with the hope that our students are going out to being leaders in the field. I think a lot of times students think, well, I want to become the hospital CEO and kind of thinking about the acute care world. But I think there's some great opportunities for students out there who want to make a difference and want to make a difference in a field that desperately is looking for people to make a difference the field of mental health. And Vaile talk about those type of opportunities as best as you know them, for you know the graduates of healthcare management education programs Sure.
Vaile Wright:So you know, I think if there's any silver lining that came out of the pandemic, it's a greater recognition of the importance of mental health and the relationship between our mental and our physical health, and in a way that I don't think everybody appreciated quite so acutely pre -pandemic. And, in particular, we know that 18 to 34-year-olds are some of the most stressed and most distressed groups of individuals out there, and so I think that that has the potential to provide a lot of motivation to say I can bring something new to this situation and change it, continue to break down stigmas around mental health and not treat it as a second-class citizen almost, if you will. Then I think it does open up opportunities for people to say, oh, I never thought about going into that space before, but what if I did? What if I have something really unique to bring to this situation? What if I can be a leader in disruption for good?
Vaile Wright:Because I think oftentimes, particularly for young individuals, leadership gets equated to experience and that's not necessarily what it is. Leadership is about having a vision for what the problem is and how to solve it, and I think that young people today really can think outside the box and use technology and use data in ways that older generations just weren't as accustomed to, because it's not what we grew up with. Necessarily, I didn't even learn how to do telehealth when I was a psychology student, you know, becoming licensed and you know, now things are just so different. So I think that there's so many opportunities for individuals to do something really unique in this space, and so, you know, I would encourage people to at least be curious about, you know, what are the opportunities? How could I, you know, bring something new?
Vaile Wright:Because the other thing is, not only are we all, you know, have our own experiences as patients, right, but we all also have our own mental health. I can't tell you how many stories I hear from technology developers where the inspiration for whatever they created was because themselves or a family member or a very close friend was was, you know, suffering from some sort of mental health condition or you know, just, you know, struggling in some way. So I think it really does touch us, really personally, and I'm just excited that the thing about how we can do this better yeah, which was a long winded answer, and I apologize.
Anthony Stanowski:No, no, but I think they'll you. You kind of, you know, hit the nail on the head there. Like you said when we began, one in 20 adults are having a major, significant mental health crisis. How do we kind of address that? If you're a student out there and you're thinking, how do I really make a big difference in this world? What are some of the things I can do to make an impact? You know it's an area that's that needs help and you've kind of nailed it. I appreciate you, I appreciate your words in there. You and I both talked at first, got together and I kind of shared with you that I was a psych major as an undergraduate and it was. It was one of the most fascinating parts and you kind of said hey, anthony, almost everybody takes Psych 101 and wants to become a psych major afterwards.
Vaile Wright:Yeah, it's like one of the most popular majors out there.
Anthony Stanowski:And then occasionally a few people bite and kind of go through the whole kind of process with it, and I ended after my undergraduate days. But then you've obviously kind of continued and continued on in that part when you kind of think about that ability. What is it that doesn't make everyone go further, or why should they kind of look further at that point from basically, you know psychology 101?.
Vaile Wright:Yeah, I think it's a really good question.
Vaile Wright:You know, I think for a lot of people the thought of going further and going to graduate school feels very overwhelming and expensive, you know.
Vaile Wright:So it's not necessarily a viable path for a lot of people. But I don't think that that means that that can be the end of your interest in psychology. I think psychology can really be applied in a variety of different ways, not just necessarily as a clinician. So, you know, I encourage people to think about what are the psychological principles that you can, you know, use when you're thinking about how to work within a team setting right, there's a lot of things going on there and you know, even if you are in a traditional physical medicine or you're in a C-suite, how much you know relationship building are you really having to do and to manage people and manage expectations. I mean, all of this is really applying psychology to benefit whatever organization that you're in. So, you know, I we of course encourage those with, you know, strong passion to want to help others to to, you know, go through the processes of, of graduate school if that's available. But, you know, recognizing that it's not always the case for everybody and that and that's a challenge.
Anthony Stanowski:And I've known quite a few people that continued on afterwards in their graduate degrees and are working with folks on an individual one-on-one basis to kind of make a difference and an impact in there in a variety of different areas in mental health too Some really passionate individuals in there. But I, Vaile, this has been a great session for me to kind of be with and an honor really for to take your time to kind of talk about. If you're a student in there and healthcare management education, you want to make a difference, this is definitely a field to kind of look into. So just appreciate your time and thanks for coming today.
Vaile Wright:Thanks so much for having me. It was a pleasure speaking with you.