PeerPen helps volunteers write better online mental health support
PeerPen: AI-Assisted Writing for Online Mental Health Peer Support
Human-Computer InteractionArtificial IntelligenceComputation and LanguageComputers and SocietySocial and Information Networks
Summary
People who offer help in online mental health communities often find it hard to write supportive messages because they aren't trained. The authors created PeerPen, a tool that uses AI to help volunteers draft and improve their replies. Interviews showed that PeerPen made writing easier and volunteers more confident, but users worried about keeping their messages genuine and trustful. The authors suggest ways AI can assist writing without replacing the human touch or harming community trust.
What this means in practice
- •For mental health community managers: Equip volunteer helpers with AI tools that ease composing supportive messages while preserving personal voice to maintain authenticity.
- •For online forum platform developers: Integrate AI-assisted writing features that guide users in crafting empathetic and genuine responses to encourage sustained peer support.
Authors
Jiwon Kim, Sherry Gong, Maya Ajit, Soorya Ram Shimgekar, Yunhao Yuan, Dong Whi Yoo, Eshwar Chandrasekharan, Koustuv Saha
Abstract
Online mental health communities thrive on peer support, yet those who volunteer to help often lack formal training and may struggle to articulate supportive responses. AI co-writing could lower this barrier; however, peer support derives much of its value from being perceived as personal, raising questions around authorship, ownership, and trust. We built PeerPen, a writing assistance tool embedded within a Reddit-like interface, supporting two main features: draft generation and revision of user-written responses. Through semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, we find that PeerPen reduced the burden of composing responses and increased confidence in offering support. Participants wanted AI to assist their writing without taking over authorship and anticipated tensions around authenticity and trust. Such assistance could make authorship uncertain even for responses written without it, weakening trust across the community. We contribute design implications for AI writing assistance that scaffolds supportive communication, preserves authorship, and accounts for community-level trust.