Beyond Engagement: A Multidimensional Framework to Evaluate the Safe Development of Agentic AI in Mental Health
Introduces a nine-domain framework for evaluating the safe development of agentic AI systems used in mental health — spanning clinical validity, relational risk, and regulatory compliance — and applies it to eight real-world tools to expose gaps between conversational fluency and user safety.
Publisher
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer Nature) — AI for Clinical Applications
Published
22 Sept 2025
Added
1 month ago
Key Findings
- Defines nine evaluation domains for agentic mental-health AI, including a dedicated relational-risk domain.
- Applied to eight real-world tools, the most popular agents often lack basic safeguards while clinically validated solutions are underused.
- Calls for structured oversight, external validation, and public awareness of agentic mental-health AI.
Methodology Notes
Peer-reviewed book chapter (LNCS, 'AI for Clinical Applications', Springer Nature; DOI 10.1007/978-3-032-06004-4_8; online 2025-09-22, print 2026). Framework development plus application to eight deployed tools. Springer landing page is auth-walled to automated fetchers; title, authors, venue, and date verified via Crossref DOI metadata, with a Zenodo supplementary record (10.5281/zenodo.15797144).
Sources
Springer LNCS chapter(opens in a new tab) (primary)
Zenodo supplementary record(opens in a new tab)
Archived snapshot (Wayback Machine)(opens in a new tab) — preserved against link rot
Authors
Beatriz Garcia Santa Cruz, Carlos Vega, Philip Santangelo, Venkata Satagopam
Tags
Cite This
APA
Beatriz Garcia Santa Cruz et al. (2025). Beyond Engagement: A Multidimensional Framework to Evaluate the Safe Development of Agentic AI in Mental Health. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer Nature) — AI for Clinical Applications. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-06004-4_8
Related Insights
Automated Safety Testing and Reporting Application for Conversational Safety Monitoring of Generative AI Tools for Mental Health: Development and Validation Study
JMIR Mental Health · 19 May 2026
VERA-MH: Reliability and Validity of an Open-Source AI Safety Evaluation in Mental Health
arXiv (Spring Health / Slingshot AI-affiliated author team) · 4 Feb 2026
Move by Move: Measuring and Steering How LLMs Conduct Psychotherapy
arXiv (preprint) · 21 Aug 2026
A Framework for Evidence-Based Psychotherapy with AI (EBP-AI)
Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science (American Psychological Association) · 17 Aug 2026