FlexiDialogue: Integrating Dialogue Trees for Mental Health with Large Language Models

João Fernandes, João Fernandes, Ana Antunes, Ana Antunes, Joana Campos, Joana Campos, João Dias, João Dias, João Dias, Pedro A. Santos, Pedro A. Santos

2025

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of mental health issues among university students is exacerbated by limited access to support due to shortages of mental health professionals and the stigma associated with seeking help. Virtual mental health assistants can extend the reach of existing resources, but traditional systems reliant on scripted dialogues are constrained by inflexibility and limited adaptability to diverse user inputs. This paper introduces FlexiDialogue, a system that transforms rigid dialogue trees into instruction sets for large language models, facilitating dynamic, contextually appropriate, and multilingual interactions while maintaining the structure and quality of expert-validated dialogue flows. The system was evaluated in three phases: (1) determining how effectively large language models could map open-ended user responses to predefined dialogue tree options, allowing for more natural interaction without compromising control; (2) assessing the models’ ability to paraphrase scripted dialogues to improve conversational fluidity while remaining grounded in the original tree; and (3) conducting an expert review to assess overall performance. Results demonstrated that FlexiDialogue enhanced the flexibility and coherence of interactions, with expert evaluations confirming its potential for mental health support.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Fernandes J., Antunes A., Campos J., Dias J. and Santos P. (2025). FlexiDialogue: Integrating Dialogue Trees for Mental Health with Large Language Models. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE; ISBN 978-989-758-743-6, SciTePress, pages 268-275. DOI: 10.5220/0013286900003938

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ict4awe25,
author={João Fernandes and Ana Antunes and Joana Campos and João Dias and Pedro Santos},
title={FlexiDialogue: Integrating Dialogue Trees for Mental Health with Large Language Models},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE},
year={2025},
pages={268-275},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013286900003938},
isbn={978-989-758-743-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE
TI - FlexiDialogue: Integrating Dialogue Trees for Mental Health with Large Language Models
SN - 978-989-758-743-6
AU - Fernandes J.
AU - Antunes A.
AU - Campos J.
AU - Dias J.
AU - Santos P.
PY - 2025
SP - 268
EP - 275
DO - 10.5220/0013286900003938
PB - SciTePress