AI as a Force Multiplier for Behavioral Health: Expanding Access, Enhancing Quality, Supporting Clinicians

By Dr. Keita Franklin, Leidos Chief Behavioral Health Officer, and Courtney Beach, Leidos Behavioral Health Technology and Innovation Lead

The behavioral health field stands at a critical crossroads

Across the country, mental health systems are overburdened, behavioral health providers are stretched thin, and far too many individuals fall through the cracks, unable to access timely, high-quality care. Rates of suicide, addiction, and trauma-related distress continue to increase, yet the behavioral health system’s ability to meet these challenges remains hampered by outdated infrastructures, limited capacity, and fragmented delivery models.

At Leidos, as behavioral health leaders, we know these problems aren’t new, but we believe the solutions can be. Our Trusted Mission AI integrates human judgement with AI’s data driven insights, enabling innovative approaches at scale. One of the most promising pathways lies in the thoughtful integration of technology - particularly artificial intelligence - to address three of the field’s most pressing challenges: access, quality, and evidence-based care delivery.

AI isn’t here to replace our mental health professionals, but to empower and support them. Using technology to offload mundane, repetitive tasks give individuals and providers time to focus on what matters: the human connection.

Access: Helping people reach the right care, faster

Too often, individuals seeking behavioral health care face long waitlists, logistical barriers, or confusing referral pathways — delays that can worsen symptoms or push people away entirely.

AI-powered triage systems and virtual platforms can help match individuals to the right level of care faster by analyzing intake data, risk factors, and symptom patterns. Natural language processing can help identify high-risk indicators in patient-reported narratives, allowing for real-time escalation or prioritization.

Rather than bouncing between providers or waiting months for an appointment, individuals can be routed more quickly to the most appropriate services, whether that’s a telehealth session, peer support, or urgent clinical care. These tools not only speed up access to care but help ensure that no one is left behind.

In areas with provider or clinician shortages — especially rural or underserved communities — AI-enabled digital front doors, telehealth, and chatbot-assisted screening tools can help expand behavioral health services beyond traditional clinics. By scaling the first point of contact and providing 24/7 support, technology acts as a force multiplier for overextended behavioral health care service delivery systems. 

Quality: Connecting people to the right care

Even when people reach services, there's no guarantee that the care will fit. Matching individuals to providers with the right expertise, cultural humility, and clinical approach is critical for outcomes. Yet today, many people are matched simply based on geographic availability or insurance networks.

Technology can help solve this through AI-powered provider matching that aligns patients’ needs and preferences with a provider’s specialty, style, and experience. This improves therapeutic fit, increases engagement, and reduces the burden on individuals to repeatedly “tell their story” as they get the care they need.

AI tools can also help clinicians spot mental health needs earlier — through digital screeners, symptom tracking, or predictive models — while clinicians make the final decision to guide people to the right care before symptoms get worse.

When it comes to quality, it’s not just about what kind of care someone gets but how quickly and easily they can get it. Too often, people reach out for care when they’re in crisis or after months of struggling in silence, because the early symptoms have been missed.  AI can help change that by acting like an early warning system, prompting someone to check in, or flagging concerns to a care team before they escalate.

When clinicians are equipped with these tools, the entire care delivery system is able to operate more efficiently. 

Efficiency: Freeing clinicians to focus on care

AI and automation can ease the administrative burdens on clinicians — tasks like documentation, screening, or follow-up tracking — freeing up more time for direct care.

This not only reduces burnout but also allows clinicians to focus on the human-centered aspects of their work: building relationships, exercising empathy, and guiding recovery.

Today’s AI-driven documentation tools (e.g. ambient listening, intelligent transcription platforms) have come a long way in enhancing the accuracy, efficiency, and quality of care.  Electronic health records are now incorporating these capabilities, allowing providers to stay engaged in conversation while the “scribe” handles real-time notetaking.

Benefits include:

• Improved compliance and documentation accuracy
• Reduced clinician burnout by easing administrative burdens
• Surfacing clinically relevant insights (e.g., recurring themes of trauma, risk factors, mood changes)
• Helping with clinical workflow processes by putting the most relevant information at the fingertips of clinicians
• Lowering the cost of care and/or aligning more resources to patient care

These innovations promise to transform clinical quality from reactive to proactive — enabling earlier intervention and more personalized care.

Technology as a complement, not a replacement

Of course, adopting these technologies must be done thoughtfully. Ethical considerations, patient privacy, data security, and cultural sensitivity are non-negotiable.

Technology cannot be a shortcut or a superficial add-on; it must be a carefully designed enhancement that complements, rather than replaces, the art and science of human care.

We see firsthand the transformative potential that emerges when behavioral health expertise is combined with advanced technology capabilities.

While the problems facing our field are undeniably complex, through collaboration, innovative thinking, and a relentless commitment to improving outcomes, we can create a future where high-quality behavioral health care is not the exception but the norm.

The time to modernize is now

If we are serious about effectively addressing the mental health crisis, we must be open to using tools that help us work smarter, extend our reach, and care deeper. Trusted AI’s effective pairing with human judgment is a powerful combination leveraging the strengths of both machine intelligence and human intuition, bringing speed and scale — so that everyone has a real chance of getting timely, personalized support without unnecessary obstacles.

About the Authors

Dr. Keita Franklin is the Chief Behavioral Health Officer at Leidos, where she leads efforts to advance behavioral health programs and services that support mental health and well-being for military service members, veterans, and their families. A nationally recognized expert in suicide prevention and military mental health, Dr. Franklin previously served as a senior executive at the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), spearheading programs that supported millions of service members and veterans.

She also led behavioral health for the U.S. Marine Corps, overseeing initiatives in crisis intervention, family advocacy, and mental health care. In the private sector, she has continued to shape behavioral health strategies, including roles at Deloitte and Columbia University’s Lighthouse Project. At Leidos, she brings decades of leadership to strengthening mental health programs that enhance access, resilience, and quality of care.

Dr. Franklin holds a PhD in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University and executive education credentials from Harvard Kennedy School and UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Courtney Beach is the Behavioral Health Technology and Innovation Lead at Leidos, where she assists efforts to advance technology and innovation in behavioral health programs and services that support mental health and well-being for military service members, veterans, and their families. She is a healthcare strategist and executive leader with deep expertise in behavioral health, digital transformation, and healthcare innovation. She has a background spanning compliance, privacy, and health IT, in which she has led large-scale initiatives to improve care delivery, drive organizational growth, and advance equitable, tech-enabled solutions. At Leidos, she brings strategic vision, hands-on experience, and deep expertise in health technology to advance data-driven solutions in behavioral health.