Lunchtime Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cSo, they were recommended a text service by their mental health nurse before; it’s a government funded text service by Spun Out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aoife has seen the messages he was sent by the chat service and has concerns that they \u201cseemed a bit AI generated\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came up in the chat, \u2018Do you have any plans? You were talking about intrusive thoughts, that kind of thing,\u2019\u201d Aoife said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he said, \u2018Yeah, I feel like I’m just a horrible person. I have plans for January and my team are aware.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the end of the chat ended with, \u2018You’ve shown your strength today. You seem to be content with your plan for January and the peace it will bring you. I’m going to close the chat now, look after yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aoife struggles to believe that such a message was sent by an actual human being, rather than an AI generated chatbot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just I’d love to know [if it] is AI at this stage,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the cutbacks have been that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Robust training’\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement to Newstalk, SpunOut said they had had 50,282 conversations with 26,270 so far in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe service is operated on a direct person-to-person basis by 160 trained volunteers, who are supported in real-time by our expert clinical staff team,\u201d a spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur robust training procedures ensure that volunteers follow our clear protocols that guide how support is offered, how risk is assessed and how safety is prioritised.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll engagement takes place within a structured framework that ensures consistency, quality and accountability across the service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone experiencing difficulties with their mental health can reach out to the Samaritans on 116 123 for confidential support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Main image: A man with mental health problems. Picture by: Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The friend of a man who contacted SpunOut for support has said she worries that the messages he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-352867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}