CARE: Bridging the gap between clinicians and computers.

Psychologists and other mental health specialists have yet to capitalize on the enormous potential of computers as "clinical assistants." Many therapeutic uses of computers reflect overly ambitious if not naive uses of these machines, such as providing warmth and understanding to hurting persons. The present authors review previous applications of computers in health care, the nature and scope of computer resistance, the relative merits of people and machines in performing different kinds of tasks, and the ethical–legal issues involved when psychological services are provided by computers. Also presented is a relatively simple algorithm for an automated psychological service delivery system that provides, in response to specified complaint statements, low-level inference evaluations, concrete clinical advice, and modest referral information. The use of this computerized assistance, referral, and evaluation (CARE) system in a college community is described. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)