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How ChatGPT Can Help You Communicate With Your Provider
- Dr Titilayo Akinsola
- 25 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Introduction
Navigating appointments with your doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist can feel overwhelming: you arrive with questions, concerns, maybe anxiety, and sometimes you leave unsure if you covered what matters most. What if you had a tool in your corner to help you prepare, clarify your thoughts, and get more out of your session? That’s where ChatGPT (or a similar AI conversational assistant) can support you—not replacing your clinician, but enhancing how you communicate with them.
At Favor Mental Health, we believe your voice matters in your care. Good communication with your provider leads to better outcomes. Research shows that when patients are more prepared, ask clearer questions, and understand what the provider says, the therapeutic alliance and treatment effectiveness improve. (BioMed Central) This blog will show you how to use ChatGPT strategically to prepare for your visit, frame your questions, reflect afterward, and keep your care on track.
Why Communication with Your Provider Matters
Good two-way communication builds trust, clarity and shared decision-making. (ACOG)
Without it, key symptoms, side-effects, or concerns may be missed, leading to sub-optimal care. (Health in Aging)
When you participate actively—coming prepared, asking questions, summarising back what you heard—you become a partner in your care. (UMass Memorial Health)Given this, any tool that helps you show up prepared and clear can enhance your mental-health journey.
How ChatGPT Can Help You Communicate Better
Here are several practical ways you can use ChatGPT (or a similar conversational tool) ahead of your provider visit, during follow-up, and over time.
1. Pre-Appointment Preparation
Clarify your goals: Ask ChatGPT: “Help me summarise my main concerns for my upcoming appointment with my therapist/psychiatrist”. This helps you pick the 2-3 most important items to raise.
Generate Question Lists: Use prompts like: “What questions should I ask about my current medication, given I have insomnia + low mood?” ChatGPT can help you draft specific, targeted questions.
Organise your information: Have ChatGPT help you create a concise summary of your symptoms, medication history, sleep/activity patterns, and concerns. Then you can bring this summary into your visit.
Practice what to say: If you feel anxious about speaking up, you can run role-play with ChatGPT: “Pretend you’re my provider. I’ll tell you what I’ve been experiencing. How might you respond and what follow-up questions would you ask?” This can help you feel more confident.
2. During / Immediately After the Visit
Note-taking check: After your appointment, you can say: “Here’s what my provider told me. Help me distil the key action points, medication/dose changes, follow-up steps into a checklist I can use this week.”
Teach-back preparation: You can ask ChatGPT: “Explain back what the provider just said in plain, everyday language, so I understand what I agreed to.” Since research shows ‘teach-back’ improves comprehension. (Wikipedia)
Follow-up questions: As you reflect later and new questions arise, you can prompt ChatGPT: “Given the appointment outcome, here are new concerns — what additional questions should I ask next time?”
3. Ongoing Communication and Self-Advocacy
Track symptoms and side-effects over time: You can use ChatGPT to build a weekly symptom/medication tracker summary you’ll upgrade and bring to each visit.
Script difficult conversations: If you need to say something tricky (e.g., “I’m concerned about this side-effect” or “I don’t feel understood”), you can use ChatGPT to craft a respectful, clear message: “Help me say this to my provider in a way that’s assertive but collaborative.”
Prepare for telehealth/portal messages: Many clinics use patient portals or messaging. You can use ChatGPT to draft a concise message: “Summarise today’s issue and ask these 3 key clarifying questions.”
Stay informed without overload: When your provider introduces a new diagnosis or term you don’t understand, you can ask ChatGPT: “Explain [diagnosis/treatment] in plain language and what I should discuss next.” This supports your understanding so you communicate more effectively.
Considerations & Best Practices
Use ChatGPT as a tool, not a replacement: It does not replace your provider’s expertise. It helps you prepare, clarify, reflect.
Be mindful of accuracy and privacy: Don’t feed personal identifiers or detailed health records into public AI if privacy is a concern. Use it to structure your thoughts, not share sensitive raw data.
Bring your prepared output to the appointment: The real value is in bringing your ChatGPT-generated list, summary or tracker to your provider — not just doing it in isolation.
Avoid over-diagnosing yourself: If ChatGPT suggests questions or summaries, always frame them as discussion starters with your provider, not self-diagnoses.
Respect appointment limits: Many providers have limited time; your prepared list should focus on priority items rather than an exhaustive list of everything. (Health in Aging)
Example Workflow
Here’s a sample sequence for using ChatGPT for your next mental-health appointment:
A week ahead: Use ChatGPT to draft “What I’ve been feeling” summary + “Top 3 questions” for the visit.
Two days ahead: Use ChatGPT to role-play how you’ll introduce your concerns, e.g., “I’ve noticed [symptom], it started when [event], I feel [emotion] and I’d like to ask about…”
After the appointment: Use ChatGPT to convert your notes into a “Follow-up checklist” (medication changes, sleep goals, referral tasks).
Between visits: Weekly use: “Help me summarise how I felt this week, any side-effects, and what I should monitor” — save for your next appointment.
If you feel unsure: Use ChatGPT: “I don’t understand what the provider said about [topic] — can you explain it in simple terms and suggest what I should ask next time?”
Why This Matters for You
At Favor Mental Health, many of our clients come in with complex mental-health issues (anxiety, depression, medication side-effects, routines disrupted). In that context:
They may forget key points, feel rushed, or struggle to articulate what matters most.
They benefit from structured support (as opposed to feeling lost in the appointment).
When clients show up prepared and clear, our time together becomes more effective — we spend less time interpreting symptoms/history and more time collaborating on a treatment plan.
Be a partner in your care: This tool helps you shift from passive recipient → active participant.
If you’d like help integrating ChatGPT into your mental-health care workflow, we can support you at Favor Mental Health. During your next consult, ask for a “visit preparation worksheet” that uses AI prompts to generate your appointment summary and question list. Let’s make sure your voice is heard, your concerns are clear, and you get the most out of every visit.
📞 Call us at 410-403-3299 or visit our website to schedule your next appointment.
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