Beginner’s Guide to Using AI in Behavioral Health

Introduction

As a clinician passionate about operational leadership, my focus has always been finding practical ways to enhance care while making life easier for the teams who make that care happen. At Lightfully Behavioral Health, we faced many of the same challenges that other organizations do—balancing clinical quality with operational efficiency, ensuring compliance, and managing limited resources. Over the past year, our journey into AI has transformed how we work, and I want to share some lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Lightfully Behavioral Health is one of the first and only mental healthcare providers focused solely on primary mental health care: treating the whole person with clinical expertise, deep compassion, and a rigorous commitment to measurable results. Lightfully Behavioral Health provides inpatient and outpatient behavioral healthcare for adults and teens.

Brellium is an AI-powered compliance solution that helps clinics protect themselves from insurance clawbacks and ensure quality care. By automating session note auditing and aligning reviews with custom clinical and payer requirements, Brellium helps QA teams to improve efficiency, maintain documentation accuracy, and meet the highest standards of compliance.

What is AI in Behavioral Health?

Let me start by breaking down what AI means for us. AI is not some mysterious, futuristic concept—it’s a tool. I like to think about it like a software designed to analyze data and simplify tasks. For behavioral health, this means using AI to streamline processes like documentation, chart audits, or compliance reviews.

When I first started exploring AI at Lightfully, I’ll admit, it sounded intimidating. Many of us in this field think of AI as something better suited to tech companies, not therapy. But the reality is that AI is already all around us, embedded in tools we use daily, like our phones. The key is understanding that it’s here to help us focus our time on the things that matter most: delivering quality care for our patients.

How AI Has Improved Efficiency and Quality at Lightfully

When we started exploring AI at Lightfully, one of our biggest challenges was chart auditing—a process that felt like a necessary burden. I was spending nearly 20 hours a week managing spreadsheets, chasing data, and coordinating reviews. It became clear this approach wasn’t sustainable, especially as we planned to scale.

Chart audits were an obvious place to try AI. They’re essential for quality and compliance but time-consuming and repetitive. Meeting the team at Brellium showed me how much easier the process could be. Tasks that used to take hours became manageable, and for the first time, we could audit every chart, not just a handful.

The real impact wasn’t just saving time—it was shifting focus. AI allowed our team to spend less time on logistics and more on meaningful work like coaching staff and improving care. It also gave us insights into documentation trends, so we could address gaps and make real-time improvements.

Looking back, adopting AI was less about jumping on a tech bandwagon and more about solving a specific problem that had been holding us back. It’s a tool that fits into our workflows, not something we’ve had to completely restructure around. And for that reason, it’s been a great addition to how we operate.

Advice for Getting Started

If your behavioral health clinic is new to AI, here’s my advice:

1. Start with a Clear Problem to Solve: For us, it was chart audits. Ask yourself, “What tasks are consuming too much time or causing frustration?” That’s where AI can help.

2. Keep an Open Mind: I’ve learned that AI isn’t about replacing people—it’s about supporting them. By taking on tedious administrative tasks, AI gives your team more time to do what they love: working directly with clients.

3. Test Drive the Tool Before Going All In: We started small, testing Brellium with a subset of charts. This allowed us to refine the tool and tailor it to our needs before rolling it out across the organization.

4. Communicate and Train Thoroughly: Change is hard, especially in behavioral health, where many of us are skeptical of technology. We spent time reassuring our team that AI is a tool to help—not a threat—and provided training to make the transition smooth.

Overcoming Concerns About AI

One concern I’ve heard from colleagues is, “Will AI take over my job?” It’s a valid fear, but it’s not the reality. At Lightfully, AI isn’t replacing anyone—it’s enabling us to work smarter. For example, instead of spending hours auditing charts, our team can focus on mentoring staff or spending time with clients.

I also recommend being mindful of how you present AI to your team. The term “AI” can sound intimidating, so we reframed it as a “software tool” that supports our work. Once our team saw how easy it was to use and how much time it saved, their hesitation melted away.

Navigating Change Management

Introducing new tools in behavioral health is never easy, but I’ve learned that focusing on relationships and practicality makes all the difference. When we decided to adopt AI for chart audits at Lightfully, I started by addressing the team’s pain points—especially the inefficiencies of our old process. Presenting the simplicity and time savings of the new tool helped build excitement and ease hesitation.

A key part of my approach is listening to our leaders. I regularly ask, “What’s slowing you down? How can I make this easier?” By partnering with them to solve these issues, I built trust and fostered buy-in.

Our adoption of Brellium came directly from these conversations. We realized our manual chart audit process wasn’t scalable and would hold us back as we grew. We wanted a solution that could ensure growth and quality go hand-in-hand. 

Partnering with Brellium to Improve Efficiency and Quality

It used to take me 20 hours a week just managing the logistics of our manual chart auditing process, and even then, we could only audit one to three charts per site per month.

With Brellium, I can review every chart across the entire organization in just a few hours. What used to take our clinical directors and program managers 8+ hours a week now takes just 1-2 hours. 

And not just that, but we’ve been able to take chart review completely off our therapists’ plates so they can just focus on clinical care. 

This means we’ve shifted from reactive spot checks to proactive, organization-wide quality assurance. The tool also flags issues like missing information or inconsistent documentation, which allows us to give real-time feedback to our teams.

For example, our client care technicians write shift notes used for insurance reimbursement. If those notes aren’t detailed enough, we risk denials or delays. Brellium helps us identify gaps and provide immediate coaching, improving the quality of our documentation and, ultimately, our care.

Beyond efficiency, one of the most rewarding parts of working with Brellium has been their flexibility. The team’s responsiveness to feedback and willingness to adapt the tool to our unique needs have been invaluable. It feels like we’re building something together—something that evolves as we grow. 

What’s Next for AI in Behavioral Health?

AI is still evolving, and that’s one of the things I’m most excited about. Since we started using Brellium, new features have been rolled out regularly, improving how we analyze data and make decisions. I believe the future of AI in behavioral health is incredibly bright.

For organizations like ours, the key will be staying flexible, collaborating with partners who understand our unique needs, and continuing to innovate. AI isn’t just about solving today’s problems—it’s about preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Final Thoughts

If you’re considering AI for your organization, my biggest piece of advice is this: don’t be afraid to explore. Behavioral health is a field where time is one of our most valuable resources, and AI can give us more of it. By automating the tasks we least enjoy, we can focus on what we love—providing the highest quality care to our clients.

Our journey with AI has been a learning experience, but it’s one I wouldn’t trade for anything. With the right tools and mindset, AI can be a game-changer for behavioral health.