Informed Consent and Using TESS

TESS is an interactive, SMS-based resilience coaching chatbot developed in partnership with X2AI for Headington Institute clients. TESS can teach you new skills to better manage your mental health, improve self-care, and increase your resilience behaviors. TESS learns from you and from your feedback over time, making modifications to the interventions offered. TESS is available anywhere in the world 24/7.

You must read the following Informed Consent Description and X2AI’s Terms of Use in their entirety before beginning your first conversation with TESS.

 

Informed Consent Description

You are about to interact with a Resilience Chatbot with artificial intelligence (AI).  This form of communication is delivered through your cell phone network and/or through WhatsApp application on your smartphone.

Introduction:

The information below describes our services along with their limitations. Please read this information before you use this service. By choosing to continue with this Chatbot, you are indicating that you have understood the information in this form and accept the conditions of our services. Your decision to utilize our services is voluntary. There is no penalty if you do not use our services, and you can discontinue use at any time.

Nature of Services:

TESS our resilience chatbot, selects interventions or new skills for you to learn. TESS learns from you and your feedback over time, making modifications to the interventions.

TESS will ask you to fill out short questionnaires during your first and second interaction and occasionally after that.  This is meant to determine areas in which TESS can teach you new skills to better manage your mental health, improve self-care, and increase your resilience behaviors.

TESS has hundreds of interventions.  Here are some of the topics you can learn about and start building new skills:

  • Adjusting to change
  • Managing Anxiety
  • Diet and sleep.
  • Managing low moods and depression
  • Grief and loss
  • Feeling insecure and struggling with uncertainty
  • Leadership development
  • Managing Loneliness and social isolation
  • Parental mental health and balance.
  • Relationships and dealing with interpersonal conflict.
  • Stress and burnout

Working with TESS is not psychotherapy or counseling.  It is a form of learning new skills and tools that may increase resilience and reduce stress and other concerns.  TESS is not meant to be a replacement for psychotherapy.  It is meant to serve as a supportive, instructional tool and resource.

There are safeguards put in place for your protection:

  • TESS will provide you with resources if you are experiencing a crisis and need mental health support. However, TESS is not meant to manage or solve a mental health crisis. This requires a licensed mental health professional.
  • TESS can also provide information to initiate linking you to a psychologist upon request.
  • TESS can also link you to more resources on Headington Institute’s website to support your mental health and well-being.
Benefits:

Learning and practicing new skills related to your mental health may improve your well-being, improve your coping responses to different types of stress, and commit to practices that foster resilience.  TESS’s interventions are based on decades of psychological research and best practices for resilience, balanced mental health, cognitive and behavioral interventions and other forms of health and wellness.

Information you provide through this format will be kept anonymous and may be used to expand our existing knowledge and effectiveness.

Risks:

There is minimal known risk when interacting with this resilience chatbot.  This new technology is being constantly improved to better serve your needs.  If the resilience chatbot does not read your responses correctly or if it offers suggestions or feedback that are not helpful, you may experience discomfort or feel misunderstood, but nothing further. You can let TESS know that their response was not helpful, and the system will learn from this feedback.

TESS is always learning and improving based on its conversations. TESS is also learning new languages and customs to be able to work with adults from various countries and cultures.  However, since TESS is still learning there is a chance that some language or interventions may not fit your context or circumstances.  Please reach out to our Director of Clinical Services (support@headington-institute.org) if TESS cannot provide the support you want.

Cell Network:

The cell network used by TESS is routed through a New York (USA) phone number. There may be a charge to send and receive text messages – check with your cell phone provider about the cost.  You may also access “TESS on WhatsApp where there are typically no fees or charges from your carrier.

GDPR Compliance:

Protecting your privacy and confidentiality is central to our work. We maintain the highest standards for confidentiality of personal data and records, in keeping with standards of GDPR and HIPAA. Participants may withdraw consent for data collection at a later date or request more information by contacting support@headington-institute.org or at +1 626-229-9336 ext. 4022.

Professional Records and Confidentiality:

All information you provide is confidential. Records of your conversations with TESS are kept in a secure database, maintained according to U.S. state laws and professional guidelines.  We will not share or discuss your responses, or anything you discuss with this chatbot, with anyone at your organization.

There are, however, three difficult situations that may require us to disclose information you share with us:

  • If you were to become a danger to yourself or others, we may be required to notify those who could protect you or the others at risk.
  • If there is suspicion of abuse or neglect of a child, elder, or dependent adult, we may be required by law to disclose information to authorities who can protect the victims.
  • If we were to receive a lawfully issued court subpoena for your records, we may be required to release certain information.
Data Collection:

The TESS chatbot collects the following personal information:

  1. Name of the user
  2. Mobile number of the user
  3. Role in organization
  4. Gender
  5. Years of experience in your field
  6. Location

The above information is collected and stored for the purposes of research and for user operations.  Your information is also reviewed periodically by a psychologist at the Headington Institute to determine if further help or assistance may be needed or beneficial.  All data is stored in the United States on HIPAA and GDPR compliant secure servers.

You are free to stop interacting with TESS at any point in time. Any data that has been collected before you stop interacting with the chatbot will be used for research purposes, but no new data will be collected.  You can opt to have your data deleted in Headington’s database if you wish by notifying our Clinical Services department at support@headington-institute.org.

Research:

All of your survey responses are treated as confidential. In the event that we use this information for research analysis or publication, all data will remain anonymous prior to analysis (your name and date of birth will not be linked to your responses). In addition, analyses are done on de-identified data only.

Contacts for Help:

Should you experience any negative emotional reactions in response to any of our services, please contact us at support@headington-institute.org or at 626-229-9336 ext. 4022.

If you have questions, complaints or issues with TESS – please contact Dr. Scott Grover (Sgrover@headington-institute.org) Director of Clinical Services at the Headington Institute

Chat with TESS

By texting the number below, and interacting with TESS, you demonstrate consent to the terms and definitions outlined in both the Informed Consent Description and X2AI’s Terms of Use.

Once you are ready to begin your first conversation with TESS, text: 1-646-846-4483