Research conversations: How are chatbots helpful for mental health support?

About the event

Digital therapies, including virtual reality or chatbot applications, are increasingly regarded as viable options to support mental health and wellbeing.

Emma Cahill is interested in how versions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be delivered through these tools. She has recently contributed to a collaborative project to develop a VR training tool to educate people about PTSD symptoms. She is also collaborating with Bristol-based organisation Spicy Minds, to examine the capacity of chatbots to recognise the overlap of symptoms across different psychiatric conditions, using an AI therapist and AI clients to test the application.

Through collaboration with colleagues from the School of Philosophy, Emma is looking into how we can assess the ethics, costs and gains associated with chatbots, and how to best build evidence around the promises and pitfalls of AI tools for mental health support.
mises and pitfalls of generative AI tools for mental health support.

Our speaker

Dr Emma Cahill is a lecturer in neuroscience at the University of Bristol. Her work involves trying to understand fear and anxiety, and the difference between these emotions in terms of what is happening in the brain. She is also involved in work to examine the evidence that digital tools, including virtual reality and chatbots, might support therapy for PTSD and anxiety disorders.

What is a research conversation?

Research Conversations are hosted by People in Health West of England and are informal sessions which are designed to give researchers and public contributors a chance to interact. Public contributors are encouraged to ask questions, learn about, and get involved in projects in their area.