July 10, 2026
Technology news for families navigating serious mental illness — translated so you don’t have to.
This was the week the mainstream press caught up to Chapter 11 of Connected Care.
The Wall Street Journal just said what this book has been saying
In back-to-back pieces, the WSJ reported that AI chatbots are being used as therapy replacements with little scientific evidence behind them — and that teens especially are turning to them for support they can’t get elsewhere. This is exactly the gap Connected Care warns about: general-purpose chatbots aren’t built or tested for people with serious mental illness, no matter how therapeutic they feel in the moment.
Three separate studies, one week, same warning
STAT News, Arizona State University, and Fordham all published research this week on the same theme: young people in distress are reaching for AI companions, and the risks are real. When three independent institutions land on the same finding in the same week, it’s not a coincidence — it’s a wave. The book’s core question still applies here: is this tool built for the person using it, or just good at sounding like it is?
The UN is paying attention now too
A UN warning this week named AI chatbots as a contributing factor in mental health crises — and in some cases, deaths. Regulation is still catching up to the technology, but the conversation is no longer confined to researchers and families. It’s now a policy conversation, which is exactly where it needs to be.
And clinicians are being told the same thing
MedCity News ran a piece this week arguing that clinicians need to stay “in the room” as AI enters mental health care — not replaced by it, not bypassed by it. If you’re a therapist or psychiatrist in this community, that’s worth a read alongside the book’s chapters on evaluating tools before recommending them. I wrote a blog this week on this very issue (What Happens Between Appointments? Why Therapists Need to Understand the Technology Their Clients Are Already Using), if you’re interested in learning more.
Get your copy today of Connected Care: A Practical Guide to Technology for Serious Mental Illness
Learn more at resourcesforsmi.com
