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Lou Jent
Mental Health in AI x Disability Justice
3 de junio de 2026
Mental Health in AI x Disability Justice
This is Part 1 of an exploration on the ethics and impact of AI on disabled lives. Please stay tuned for Part 2: Data Centers x Disability Justice, scheduled for our August Newsletter.
Defining AI
For the purposes of this article, we could agree on the definition of AI as any artificial intelligence. Simple enough, but this also means expanding our idea of AI beyond the generative chat engines most commonly associated with the acronym. Individuals who see human behavioral health professionals might be surprised to learn that the provider is using an AI note-taker, for instance, as are most health providers now. From Facebook to Gmail to Grammarly, all employ various versions of what’s known as “predictive text” which is, in AI terminology, the ability for a machine to predict what a user will type next. Spam filters, Alexa, and Siri are all a form of AI. Even our search engines offer AI responses now. Additionally, certain tools exist that were designed for certain minds, like goblin.tools, that employ forms of AI. Customer Relation Managers (CRMs) such as Hubspot are now being built with AI at the heart of them, and more will likely follow. It is now likely impossible to divest from AI completely without living a tech-free, western-medicine-free, existence, off-grid, though you can reduce your dependency.
With these realities in mind, why does the debate around using AI for therapy seem to be so centralized, and how can we apply the principles of Disability Justice framework to it?
AI as it is used for Therapy
One form of AI for therapy is actually trained therapy-bots, many of which are prescription-based models. These range from the highly-acclaimed tool Finch, which builds habits, interconnectedness, and coaches you through personalized journalized prompts (this is the only part of the app that uses AI, so you could skip those and still benefit from all the other gamified self-care), to things like feelbetterbot.com – which touts 24/7 access to free therapeutic care. In addition to access in both time and cost models, these have been built with the specific goal of mental health in mind. These are only two of a multitude of apps and tools with mental health squarely in the creators’ sights as they created apps, tools, and websites that are many times free to access. This matters especially to teens, who value privacy, free therapy, and access. Common Sense Media recently evaluated 3 therapy apps most popular with teen users, Wysa, Alongside, and Sonar, and found that while Wysa did not meet their standards of care, better care was possible and met by the other two.
Adults and teens are also using Larger Language Model (LLM) generative AI engines such as chatGPT, Gemini, or Claude for therapy, in increasing numbers. In 2025, Sentio University’s survey reported that “48.7% of respondents who both use AI and self-report mental health challenges are utilizing major LLMs for therapeutic support.”(Siento 2025) A Stanford University study put their results more plainly: “A striking 24% of surveyed participants use LLMs for mental health. These users are more likely to be young, male, and Black and have poorer mental health and quality of life. They report difficulty accessing traditional mental health treatment – particularly due to cost and insurance coverage – and use LLMs because they are free, convenient, and available when needed.”(Stanford 2025)
And the percentage is likely higher, a year later. Not created with mental health in mind, a concern raised by mental health professionals is that the answers individuals may receive will be minimally self-supportive at best, and at worst may create something called “chatbot psychosis”, which is when a person either develops or their underlying psychosis is made worse by speaking with a chatbot. Another concern expressed has been the gutting of the mental health professional complex.
According to bettercare.com, the average session of therapy in America now costs $150. If you go four times a month, that’s $600, putting it out of the price range of most lower/middle-class Americans. Additionally, counselingpsychology.org reported that “BIPOC Americans make up roughly 40% of the U.S. population, yet only about 20% of the mental health workforce identifies as BIPOC. That gap is not a coincidence.”Their article went on to identify barriers in providers finding their way to the field, and to write “For communities already navigating distrust of medical institutions, the shortage of culturally affirming providers is not a minor inconvenience. It shapes whether people seek help at all.” and that reality matters when we discuss the debate around LLMs and therapy. (counselingpsychology.org 2026)
Disability Justice Framework
We begin, as if it were our first breath, with the principle of Intersectionality. “We do not live single issue lives.” This is an infinite truth, so it applies in our reality around the use of learning machines, and the technology that will follow it. Our bodyminds are being impacted by AI use no matter where we fall on the spectrum of AI use/approval.
What would leadership of the most impacted look like, in this scenario? It’s clear that issues of class, race, ageism, and ableism are impacting the conversation around use of LLMs /AI as therapy. In her Psychology Today article about the rise of Ai in Mental Health, Dr. Sandra Wartski writes that humans need other humans, which is true. However, her suggestion of having mental health professionals shape the LLMs and mental health apps responses to those who use them, may not go far enough. It still centralizes the point of view of the providers who helped create a system that isn’t serving the people it claims to want to support. Depathologizing and destigmatizing our most marginalized among us and understanding their viewpoint means giving them leadership, as well, all parts of the path of decolonizing care.
Anti-capitalist politic and commitment to cross-movement organizing probably have to be nuanced here. Free isn’t always free in the land of America, apps and websites, but we need to understand that it’s what’s landing versus a $150 session fee. Or versus $15 for a year of care – the cost feels minimal. What true anticapitalism and cross-movement organizing would look like in the face of this is to build networks of care that hold our most fragile and vulnerable, and offer them the resources, time, and energy they need societally. Until those are built, where your particular anticapitalist politic and cross-movement organizing lie is up to you individually, and understanding the reasons why someone may need to use LLM therapy while also holding that the corporations that build data centers need to be held accountable for their impact on society and the environment can all be part of your landscape.
In this conversation, it feels more important than ever to name that recognizing wholeness is our path to sustainability. We cannot live sustainable lives (and our current rate of adoption of AI without any accountability does feel unsustainable) without recognizing the wholeness of each other as disabled people, and the sacred way that we are part of an ecosystem, the sacred ways in which we have value within it. The global ways in which we can see a larger picture around ourselves, as in this point of tension, and around each topic, as we build our principles and lives, can lead us all to liberation.
And in this piece, I’m offering cross-disability solidarity to anyone who doesn’t self-define as mad (this writer does) but who knows that the principles of Disability Justice resonate and are embodied within. I hope you are finding your way within this and with this, with all of us. What does it mean to offer your wheels, or your voice, or your skills, to this particular issue? What can you find as a thread in this that weaves through your story? We will rely on interdependence as we solve increasingly complex societal issues in the future. While there is little each of us can do as individuals to shift the course of society’s dependency on AI, we can have nuanced conversations that hold the larger powers and one another accountable.
The collective access that LLMs have offered could be a landmark on our roadmap for our collective liberation. Collectively, we could be curious about what we want to learn from them, and what do we want to leave behind?
Resources:
BetterCare.com pricing:
https://bettercare.com/costs/therapy-cost
Common Sense Media’s Newsletter Piece on Teens using AI for Therapy
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-ratings/ai-mental-health-apps?lid=kwsm45bn1pyc
CounselingPsycology’s The Availability of BIPOC Therapists
https://www.counselingpsychology.org/availability-bipoc-therapists/
Psychology Today Article on The Rise of AI and it’s Impact on Mental Health
Sentio’s Article on their AI and Mental Health Survey
https://sentio.org/ai-research/ai-survey
Stanford’s Real-World LLM Use