Ethical Decision-Making Guidelines for Mental Health Clinicians in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Era

Course overview

Course Description: This course provides mental health professionals with a comprehensive ethical framework for integrating artificial intelligence into clinical practice. It examines the intersection of established ethical principles from the ACA, APA, AMA, and NASW with emerging AI ethics guidelines from international organizations, governments, and technology corporations. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level practitioners who wish to learn more about ethical decision-making in the context of artificial intelligence in mental health practice. It is also a good resource for licensed therapists who need continuing education in ethics for license renewal. Authors: Pillay Learning Objectives: This course will provide a professional with detailed information about ethical decision-making for mental health clinicians navigating AI integration in clinical practice. Specifically, the practitioner will: 1. Identify the five core ethical pillars that form the foundation of the proposed AI decision-making framework for mental health professionals, including autonomy and informed consent, beneficence and non-malfeasance, confidentiality and transparency, justice and fairness, and fidelity and accountability. 2. Apply the ethical framework guidelines to real-world clinical scenarios involving the use of AI tools in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning with diverse client populations. 3. Evaluate the limitations of the proposed ethical framework and articulate strategies clinicians can use from the pre-adoption checklist to promote responsible and ethical AI use in their practice. Citation: Pillay, Y. (2025). Ethical decision-making guidelines for mental health clinicians in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Healthcare, 13, 3057. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13233057