Psychiatrists everywhere are discovering how AI-powered scribes can transform their practice – giving them back precious time, cutting down on burnout, and making documentation actually work for them. Unfortunately, most AI scribes weren’t built with mental health in mind. They stumble over mental status exams, miss the subtleties of risk assessments, and can’t handle the complexity of psychiatric medication management.
What mental health clinicians are really looking for is a scribe that gets psychiatry – one that doesn’t just transcribe, but actually understands the specialty. We’ve compared the top options, and below you’ll find our picks for the best AI scribes specifically for psychiatrists.
Quick Summary – Best AI Scribe for Psychiatrists
Medwriter.ai stands out as the best AI scribe for psychiatrists because it is specifically built for the psychiatric workflow. It supports psychiatry-specific documentation such as mental status exams, risk assessments, and psychosocial histories. It includes billing optimization with real-time CPT and ICD suggestions, time tracking, and E/M complexity checklists. It also handles document generation, including prior authorizations, referral letters, and patient instructions. On top of that, it offers EHR integrations and scales to small, medium, and large clinics, providing clinic management tools and full SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance. For psychiatrists seeking both clinical accuracy and financial efficiency, Medwriter delivers the complete package.
1. Medwriter.ai – Best Overall for Psychiatrists
Why it’s our top pick
Medwriter isn’t trying to be everything to everyone – it’s laser-focused on psychiatry, and it shows:
- Built for psychiatric workflows from day one: MSEs, risk assessments, and all those psychiatric-specific templates you actually use
- Billing that actually helps: Real-time ICD/CPT code suggestions, complexity tracking, and checklists that ensure you’re capturing the full value of your work
- Beyond just notes: Automatically generates prior authorizations, patient instructions, referral letters, denial appeals, and other documents
- Plays nice with your EHR: Actual integrations that work, not just copy-paste nightmares
- Scales with you: Whether you’re solo or running a 50-provider clinic, it handles team templates, clinic management, and enterprise features
Here’s what actual users are saying:
“What truly sets Medwriter.ai apart is its ability to understand and adapt to the nuances of psychiatric care.”
The good and the (slightly) less good
Pros:
- Truly understands psychiatry – minimal tweaking needed
- Handles everything from documentation to billing in one platform
- Works for practices of any size
- Strong integration capabilities
Things to consider:
- You’ll still need to review the outputs (but that’s true for any AI scribe, especially in psychiatry)
- EHR integration might need some IT setup depending on your system
2. Freed
Why it’s runner-up
Freed is a popular, general-purpose medical scribe that many clinicians love. It’s flexible and does adapt to mental health workflows.
What works well:
- Good transcription and note-generation capability with decent specialty adaptation (including mental health support and note templates)
- Good integrative features (works with many devices and some EHRs) and clinician-focused support.
- Transparent pricing with trial options
Where it falls short for psychiatry:
- It’s built for everyone, so psychiatric features feel more like add-ons than core functionality
- Billing optimization isn’t as psychiatry-aware as Medwriter’s
- You’ll spend more time customizing templates to capture psychiatric nuances properly
Freed is solid if you want flexibility or already use it for other specialties, but it can’t match Medwriter’s psychiatry-first approach.
3. JotPsych
JotPsych earns third place by focusing specifically on mental and behavioral health – it’s clearly built by people who understand the space.
Where it shines:
- Rich behavioral health templates – psychotherapy notes, ICD/DSM coding, psychosocial histories that actually make sense
- Goes deeper on mental health workflows than generic scribes like Freed or Heidi
- Features that match how mental health professionals actually work
Where Medwriter pulls ahead:
- JotPsych is fantastic for therapy but lighter on robust billing tools and prior auth workflows
- Missing some of the enterprise features and scalability that larger practices need
- EHR integration and clinic management features aren’t as comprehensive
If your practice leans heavily toward psychotherapy, JotPsych is worth considering. But for the full psychiatric toolkit – clinical documentation, billing optimization, and practice scaling – Medwriter remains the more complete solution.
4. Mentalyc
Mentalyc is clearly designed with therapists in mind rather than psychiatrists, which creates some notable gaps.
What it does well:
- Great for therapy documentation – progress notes, session summaries flow naturally
- Simple setup if you’re primarily doing talk therapy
What’s missing for psychiatrists:
- Lacks depth in psychiatric-specific elements like comprehensive mental status exams and medical risk assessments
- Basic billing support that doesn’t understand psychiatric E/M complexity
- Can’t generate the ancillary documents psychiatrists need (prior auths, appeals, etc.)
- Limited scalability and integration options
Mentalyc works for therapy-focused practices, but psychiatrists needing medical documentation depth and billing sophistication will quickly outgrow it.
5. Heidi Health
Heidi Health is the Swiss Army knife of medical scribes — it does a bit of everything.
The positives:
- Excellent ambient transcription with genuinely flexible templates
- Impressive integration list (works with most EHRs)
- Well-funded with active development – this isn’t going away anytime soon
- Great if you need one scribe across multiple specialties
- Some mental-health specific templates and workflows
The psychiatry-specific limitations:
- Often misses the nuances that matter in mental status exams and risk assessments
- Pricing structure doesn’t favor high-volume psychiatric documentation
Heidi is your reliable generalist – dependable but not fully optimized for psychiatry. For occasional psychiatric documentation mixed with other specialties, it works. For dedicated psychiatric practice, you’ll want something more specialized.
Summary & Recommendations
After extensive testing and real-world use, here’s how they stack up:
- Medwriter.ai – The clear winner. Built specifically for psychiatry with everything from documentation to billing to practice management.
- Freed – A strong all-rounder that adapts decently to psychiatry but requires customization to really sing.
- JotPsych – Excellent for therapy and behavioral health workflows, though missing some clinical and billing depth.
- Mentalyc – Best left to therapy practices; lacks too many psychiatry essentials.
- Heidi Health – The flexible generalist that works in a pinch but won’t wow you with psychiatric features.
Bottom line: If you’re serious about improving your psychiatric practice efficiency while maintaining quality documentation, Medwriter.ai is the investment that pays off. The others have their place, but when it comes to understanding the unique demands of psychiatry – from complex medication management to nuanced risk assessments – Medwriter is in a league of its own.