Mental health app sorry about 'unfortunate' gay man whom it referred to pro-conversion therapist

On Monday, the Wall Street Journalpublished an exposé on how online mental health services, which have exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, have failed to screen out unqualified or unprofessional providers — a situation demonstrated vividly when a gay man who had been rejected by his family called in seeking therapy services, only to be connected with a right-wing Christian therapist who tried to "convert" him to heterosexuality.

"After Caleb Hill told his parents he was gay, he was kicked out of the house. He had been taught, growing up in a conservative Christian household in Tennessee, that his attraction to men was a grave sin," reported Rolfe Winkler. "Feeling isolated and depressed a few months later, Mr. Hill, then 22, thought therapy might help. He had heard podcast ads for BetterHelp, a company that provides therapy remotely and promises 'a personalized therapist match that is tailored to your preferences and needs.' His biggest concern was he missed his family. The therapist he was given, he says, recommended he try to stop being gay so he could go back to them."

Hill showed WSJ via a screen shot that he had requested an LGBTQ+ therapist, but the app nonetheless delivered a Christian therapist who told him his only shot was ditching his sexuality.

"He said either you sacrifice your family or you sacrifice being gay," Hill said. "I needed someone to tell me I was gay and that was OK. I got the exact opposite."

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BetterHelp declined to discuss Hill's specific experience, but told the paper, “Given the scale of the service, unfortunate and negative experiences are not completely unavoidable.”

However, according to the report, several other users of the service complained that they were matched up with unprofessional therapists — including other LGBTQ people who were matched up with therapists who weren't sympathetic to their sexual orientation.

"Telehealth technology was used for 36% of outpatient visits for mental-health and substance-abuse treatment in the March-through-August stretch of 2021, a jump from essentially zero before the pandemic, according to research from Kaiser Family Foundation," said the report. "Sensing opportunity, investors last year poured $4.8 billion into startups offering digital mental-health services, according to Rock Health, a research and investment firm. Some of the companies provide therapy, some prescribe psychiatric drugs and some do both. The companies say that their advertising helps to break the stigma associated with seeking mental-health treatment."

All of this comes at a politically fraught moment for telehealth services, with Democrats in Texas, in the wake of the state's total abortion ban, urging the federal government to protect providers who live outside of Texas but may provide abortion medication services to people within the state.