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Welcome to The Census, your biweekly roundup of what matters in behavioral health care.

Today, we’re breaking down:

• Hopes and concerns around AI therapy

• Your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Shân

P.S. While we’re on the topic of AI: these newsletters are always written by a human. Not that I have anything against AI; I just love nerding out on behavioral health, and I won’t give that joy over to the robots yet. 

Hosting a behavioral health event? Take all the stress out of it. 

Chat to the Turn Productions team

What we’re watching this week 

🤖 Humans are divided on AI therapists

AI therapy and ‘emotionally intelligent’ chatbots made several headlines this week. The articles linked below are worth perusing in full but if you’re pushed for time (who isn’t), here’s what you need to know.

Firstly, we’re not sure whether AI can be a therapist. So there’s a growing divide between people who trust AI for emotional support, and those who don’t.

• A third of all Americans, and more than half of young Americans, are in the trust camp, and say they feel comfortable chatting with AI about mental health concerns

• However, the majority of older Americans and many mental health experts firmly believe AI cannot replace human connection and understanding

And even if we put LLM training concerns (ahem) aside, research shows that people who trust AI chatbots are also more likely to be emotionally dependent on them — and feel lonely. 

• A little glance at the new scathing report by OpenAI themselves shows just how strongly loneliness and social isolation are correlated with higher chatbot usage 

Then there’s the new realization that therapy chatbots can get stressed when faced with users’ accounts of traumatic experiences. Interesting. 

Nevertheless, there is plenty of talk about AI replacing therapists. 

• Practicing psychologist Maytal Eyal made the case in Time that therapy is ripe for disruption, and AI has the potential to democratize it

• She’s seen both clients and friends increasingly turn to AI over human therapists 

But she has a pertinent qualm: Chatting with AI agents removes the natural friction inherent to human relationships. 

AI therapists are available 24/7, always know just what to say, and can tolerate all of your bullsh*t. Which, let’s face it, isn’t a natural kind of relationship — but one we could quickly get used to.

So as we democratize therapy with AI, Eyal argues that we risk losing the skills to navigate real human relationships and all their complexities. Leaving us lonelier and unhappier than before.

This is something our analyst has covered in her analytical essays (where the views are her own, obvs). 

And with all that recommended reading, let’s move on to what most of you are really here for: the bite-size news headlines.

Catch up quick

This week’s top stories

Latest news

💔 A chaotic restructuring order from DOGE threatens to degrade mental health services for war veterans.

🍄 The dawn of state-regulated psychedelic mushrooms has arrived in Colorado as regulators issue licenses and look to authorize the state’s first “healing centers.” 

🛑 Legacy addiction providers in Alabama are guarding their turf with CON laws that shut out new competition — and limit detox bed expansion.

🧐 One of NYC’s signature mental health programs is in question after a report found sending homeless mentally ill people to involuntary care has been ineffective.

🎉 Talkspace announced its virtual therapy services are now available to more than one million Medicare members in Arizona.

☹️ Close to 60% of employees have considered quitting due to mental health struggles, a new Headspace report shows.

⚠️ Philly’s fentanyl supply has been infiltrated by an industrial chemical that may cause heart defects, lung damage, blurry vision, and death.

🏥 Universal Health Services is looking to expand its outpatient services to patients with less acute behavioral health care needs.

🧠 One of the four new community jails being built to replace Rikers will now be dedicated to inmates with mental health issues.

🧑‍⚖️ A federal court takeover of California’s troubled prison mental health system has been initiated to help tens of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illness.

🎥 A new documentary spotlights the link between online drug dealers and social media algorithms that push deadly, fake pills onto teens.

🤖 Pediatric mental health platform Fort Health has partnered with coaching platform Colleva to train therapists using AI patient avatars.

❌ State regulators have shot down Endeavor Health’s request to eliminate inpatient psychiatric services at Northwest Community Hospital.

💸 Reimbursement- and payment-related challenges remain the top concern for behavioral health executives, a new survey suggests. 

💉 A Miami nurse who swapped a hospital’s fentanyl meds with saline has been sentenced to 2+ years in prison.

🚚 A mobile clinic for opioid treatment is bringing medication-assisted therapy, telemedicine, and counseling to homeless Portlanders.

🍷 Less than half of Medicaid-managed care plans cover all medications for AUD, despite alcohol misuse markedly impacting Medicaid populations.

😦 Related: five million adults could lose Medicaid coverage in 2026 if work requirements are enacted.

💻 ProsperityEHR, a platform designed specifically to help behavioral health providers streamline operations, has officially launched. 

👀 San Diego’s top behavioral health official has resigned as the county grapples with federal funding uncertainty and a slew of new major initiatives.

💊 A new policy paper shows Trump is serious about addressing the sky-high costs of prescription drugs in the US; Axios (of course) did an excellent breakdown of the paper here.

Funding rounds & investor moves

🧠 Brain.space landed $11M to grow its mental model platform that helps understand and predict human behavior (they use the EEG helmet above for data collection).

💊 NeuroNOS secured $2M to advance the development of their drug that uses nitric oxide levels in the brain to treat symptoms of autism.

💰 Tempero Bio raised $70M to advance a drug it’s developing into mid-stage testing for cocaine and alcohol use disorders.

🤑 Roper bought ABA software company CentralReach for ~$1.65B.

🤝 AspenRidge Recovery and Colorado Medication-Assisted Recovery have officially merged.

📉 The Trump administration’s hazy approach to Medicaid and tariffs could potentially stall behavioral health dealmaking, analysts warn.

👀 At least six states are racing to limit or put new checks on private equity-fueled mergers in health care.

New studies

🦮 Therapy dogs in a pediatric emergency department reduced kids’ anxiety within ten minutes (study).

🦠 L-tyrosine helps improve autism-like behaviors in mice by changing their gut bacteria, suggesting that dietary L-tyrosine may help treat ASD-related symptoms (study).

🧠 High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) effectively improved social impairment symptoms in children with ASD (study).

That’s it for this week! See you next time,

- Shân

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