AI in Behavioral Health: Ethics, Risks, and Responsible Use (3 Hours) -Arizona

AI in Behavioral Health: Ethics, Risks, and Responsible Use is a three-hour, text-based home study course for counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers, addiction professionals, and psychologists who use or are considering artificial intelligence tools in practice. The course explains how AI and generative AI work, where AI now appears in behavioral health (ambient scribes, note drafting, decision support, measurement-based care, chatbots, and wellness apps), and what the research shows about benefits and risks such as hallucination, bias, automation bias, privacy breaches, and crisis failures. It reviews current state laws on AI in therapy, including Arizona's new AI informed consent rule, the Illinois Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, Nevada AB 406, Utah's mental health chatbot law, Texas disclosure laws, and the 2026 wave of state laws, along with HIPAA business associate requirements for AI vendors. It closes with NBCC, ACA, APA, and NASW guidance and a practical toolkit for vetting tools, writing AI consent language, reviewing AI output, and creating a practice AI policy. The course is designed around Arizona's new three-hour continuing education requirement in technology related to behavioral health but is not approved or endorsed by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners. Upon successful completion of the post-test, hours are reported directly to CE Broker.