In this episode, I’m diving into the new (and maybe unclear) world of AI-powered treatment plans and sharing how tools like Berries are changing the game for therapists. Are you ready to transform the way you handle therapy sessions? Tune in as I cover how AI-powered treatment plan can streamline admin work and enhance client care. I’ll walk you through my experience using AI to generate treatment plans that adapt and grow with your clients.
But that’s not all—I’ll also tackle one of the most asked questions: Do you need informed consent to use AI in your practice? Spoiler alert: Yes, you do! I’ll guide you through how to create an informed consent form (with a little help from ChatGPT) and the key elements you must include to protect both you and your clients.
This episode is packed with actionable insights, including:
- How Berries’ AI can regenerate treatment plans based on progress notes.
- Why informed consent is essential and how to make it seamless for your practice.
- My top tips for using AI ethically and securely in therapy.
Connect with me:
- Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
- Join the Clinical AI Club: www.clinicalaiclub.com
Sponsored by Alma: www.helloalma.com/kym
Sponsored by Berries: www.berries.icu/therapists
Transcript:
[01:05:05] Hi you guys! Berries is an AI notes writing company. They just released their new treatment plans. I am so excited. I just had a session with a client and I cannot wait to go generate the treatment plan and see what it comes up with.
[01:06:25] It’s just really exciting. Those of you that are using it, it’s beta, so they really want your feedback about it. So I’d love for you to go try it and have a session or even dictate a session and just I’m going to do an entire video, like a walkthrough, exactly how it works and everything you can do with it, because you can regenerate the treatment plan after you see the client, you can come back and see the same client again.
[01:06:50] It’s going to regenerate a new treatment plan based on the old treatment plan and the new progress note, which just totally blows my mind. I’m just really, really, really excited about it. So anyway, when I was just doing my Facebook live before, I was talking about basically informed consents. I get this question all the time.
[01:07:10] People say, well, do I have to have the client sign an informed consent if I’m going to use AI? The answer is absolutely yes, you do have to. I created a template using ChatGPT really quickly and easily. I’m happy to share it with you. I’ve got it. And also inside of Berries, whether you’re a paying customer or not, they’ve got an informed consent, so you can go in there, you can download their informed consent, you can send it to your client and Incorporate it into your own informed consent if you want to.
[01:07:37] So I just want to just go through and talk a little bit about what I put into ChatGPT. So I created a private practice paperwork template. GPT creator inside of ChattGPT. I shared it with the clinical AI club and then I made a public for everybody. So it’s an option. It’s out there if you guys want to use it, it creates paperwork for private practices and it does it from a healthcare attorney’s perspective and it’ll create the paperwork for you.
[01:08:04] And if you ever do use it, obviously ChattGPT is not a lawyer. Please make sure you have it checked by a lawyer if you use it, but it’s super helpful for generating initial. If you need a consent form or if you need a form that you’ve never had to use before, you can pop it in here and do it. So I just went into my GPT and I said, I need to write an informed consent for using AI in my sessions with my clients.
[01:08:27] What all do I need to include? And it was super helpful, of course. And it said you need an introduction and purpose. So you need to explain. The use of AI and how you’re using it and the purpose of it. Clearly define what a AI is and how to be used in the therapy sessions. This might include aspects like AI assisted note taking, therapeutic suggestions, data analysis, chatbots, treatment plan writing, chat GPT, berries, whatever you’re using, you’re going to want to put that into your consent explaining how you’re using it.
[01:08:57] And the reason why you’re using it. ChadGPT suggested that you put how’s it expected to benefit the therapeutic process. So I talk to my clients about this every time I talk about AI and I basically say here’s the deal, I’m a therapist, all I care about really is helping you and helping you with your problems, but I’ve got a ton of administrative paperwork I’ve got to answer to the insurance companies I’ve got to make sure I have treatment plans and diagnosis I’ve got to make sure I’m Doing a progress note every time I see you and that takes up a lot of time and using AI is helping me totally streamline that process.
[01:09:31] It gives me more time to be able to spend with you, my client, being able to just tell them that most of them are really open to it. They love it. They’re just like, yeah, whatever it takes. I don’t want you to be burned out. You’re my therapist. I need you to be like healthy and well. So they’re happy for me to use it.
[01:09:46] I’ve had nobody pushed back on that, but in your informed consent, you’re going to want to just talk about how it’s going to enhance your, It’s the therapeutic process and then the scope of involvement. So you’re going to talk about the specific functions that happens within the AI that you’re using.
[01:09:59] Are you recording? Are you dictating? Are you using chat2pt like a chat platform, a large language model to help you come up with interventions, that sort of thing. You’re going to want to talk about data privacy and confidentiality. Specifically, what type of data are you using with the AI? Are you using their names or their PHI?
[01:10:18] What are you doing? You want to really be specific about that. You want to talk about storage and security, explain how the client data is going to be stored. And the situation with berries, obviously it’s HIPAA compliant and they don’t even store the recordings. After you end the session, it just deletes it.
[01:10:34] It’s the recording completely, so it’s not even stored in a cloud, even though it’s HIPAA compliant. You’re going to want to explain that in your informed consent. If you’re using CHAT GPT, that is not HIPAA compliant, so you’re going to want to say, you’re using free AI models out there, but you would never put any PHI or any information that would identify the client into these public models, basically.
[01:10:53] You’re going to talk about risk and benefit, acknowledging any potential risks associated with using AI, such as data breaches, misinterpretation of data by AI. Reliance on AI generated insights, because right, we might go over to AI and say, give me some new interventions because this client is super complicated and I’m at a loss.
[01:11:12] You might do that and then get some information about that. So you want to include all of that in. And then lastly, you just want to talk about client rights. They have the right to decline. They have the right to use it now and then decide to change their minds later. They have the right to agree. They have a right to change their mind at any point in the process.
[01:11:30] They have the right to find a new clinician if they don’t like your use of AI and us as clinicians. You could put in there too that we use AI in our practice. So if you’re working with me, you’re gonna be working with somebody that’s using AI in the therapeutic process so you can refer clients out that are comfortable with it too.
[01:11:47] A lot of clinicians don’t think that, that they have to just go with what the client says. You don’t have to, if a client doesn’t want to abide by the way you’re using ai, it’s okay to have. healthy boundaries for yourself and say, you know what? Well, I’m going to defer you to a different therapist. And so sorry about that.
[01:12:02] It’s like with anything, if you don’t specialize in PTSD, and you think they’d have a better fit with somebody else, it’s okay to do that. But you want to put all that in your consent. And then, uh, One other thing is you want to just talk about third party involvement. So if you’re using a company like Barry’s or another company, you’re going to want to put that in there because for example, Barry’s has an option where after you write your note, you can send an email directly from your note, an AI generated note that says, here’s what we talked about.
[01:12:28] Here’s your homework. Here’s the therapeutic process that happened today. You can send that an email immediately from Barry’s, but it’s a third person It’s still secure, but you’re going to want to put that in your informed consent that they might get Communications that way from you if you choose to use that feature But anyway, that’s just the quick down and dirty about how to just make your informed consent And I hope that helps let me know if you have any questions.
[01:12:51] check out Berries. They released their treatment plans and it is amazing. It’s awesome. It’s like, I hate to say game changer because that’s an AI word, but you guys are just going to freak when you use your first AI generated treatment plan from your session.
[01:13:04] It’s amazing.