Latest / The Mental Health Evolution / Ep 19: Big Mental Health Stories & Trends to Watch in 2026

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Ep 19: Big Mental Health Stories & Trends to Watch in 2026 · The Mental Health Evolution

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) This podcast is part of the Frederick Podcast Network.
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  Learn more at listenfrederick.com.
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  Welcome to Mental Health Evolution, a podcast about what's changing in mental
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  health and why it matters.
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  I'm your host, Rachel Harrison, inviting you into honest conversations with
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  people from all perspectives in the field, clinicians, tech founders,
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  investors, insurance companies, and all the folks in between.
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  Let's explore what's working, what's not, and what's next.
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  Welcome back, everyone, to the Mental Health Evolution podcast.
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  Last week, we wrapped up 2025 by listening to some of my
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  favorite clips from this new podcast.
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  I mentioned that I would be following up with some of the
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  big news stories that we see going on in 2026.
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  Here are some of the things I think we're gonna be talking
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  about this year.
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  We have already booked several guests, and I am excited to share
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  with you the conversations.
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  I also know that there are gonna be surprises.
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  There are gonna be things that pop up that are not even
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  on my radar right now.
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  And I'd love to hear from you about what you're seeing as
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  well.
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  The more we all talk about it, the more we all raise
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  the conversation, the better off we're going to be at the end
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  of whatever all these changes are that lead to excellent care, hopefully,
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  for clients and good work situations for clinicians as well as small
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  businesses.
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  So please reach out.
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  We'd love to hear from you.
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  I wanna kind of start off this conversation with something that inspired
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  me earlier this week.
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  I went to the Delaware Healthcare Forum, which was a gathering of
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  people who were there to talk about leading through the storm and
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  all the changes in healthcare in general, mental health being one of
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  them.
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  And it was a very inspiring conference.
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  And I think I wanna highlight for a moment and give a
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  shout out to the keynote speaker who was Phil Gwoki, who talked
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  about bold leadership as being the ability to open up collaboration and
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  having difficult conversations with seemingly opposing perspectives or
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  initiatives.
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  He talked about those differences in so many ways between different people,
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  different beliefs, different generations, and how we all look at the workforce
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  and look at what's happening.
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  But it was inspiring to hear and this vibes well, I feel
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  like with the goals of our podcast, which is to raise the
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  conversation, no matter what the changes, to hear from even seeming opposing
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  viewpoints because we are all people and how we make decisions in
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  this industry and what we're talking about is really important and has
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  ethical ramifications and honestly impacts, I think for generations to come.
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  So those are some of the things we are gonna be highlighting
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  this year.
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  And the first topic that I want to sort of talk about
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  is the idea that the behavioral health market is growing.
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  It's growing in size.
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  Recent research shows that the global behavioral health market is projected to
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  grow around $330 billion by 2034.
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  That is up roughly from 185 billion in 2025.
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  That is an enormous amount of money.
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  And that kind of highlights why there are all kinds of people,
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  investors, tech companies looking to get into this field and get a
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  piece of that market share.
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  The things driving this, I think rising mental health awareness, expansion of
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  telehealth and digital therapy, and more acceptance of behavioral health as a
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  mainstream part of care.
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  You know, I've been in this industry long enough and I remember
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  when people were saying, we just need more awareness or we just
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  need to reduce the stigma.
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  That has happened.
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  We are there.
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  And this, I think, is the growth that we're seeing from that.
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  It does create opportunities.
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  It also creates challenges.
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  More demand and investment could mean more resources and better access and
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  innovations.
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  On the other hand, it means probably consolidation, increased pressure on small
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  and traditional human-based practices and competition from large digital first
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  providers.
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  Just things to talk about and consider as we go into the
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  next year.
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  For people running traditional therapy practices or small group practices, this
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  could be a turning point.
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  For those interested in leveraging technology, teletherapy, hybrid models,
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  human and AI blends, it could also be a chance to expand,
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  reach or rethink what this all means.
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  My hope is that no matter where this goes, we consider client
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  care as being primary and that we consider ethical considerations for all
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  of the decisions that we make to the best of our ability.
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  And I think that brings up the next topic that is definitely
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  already happening.
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  And I think we'll just talk about it more and more.
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  We've already talked about it.
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  You heard some of the clips from this in the year review
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  of 2025, but the idea of hybrid care models, so like a
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  human-AI blend.
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  And I think there are a lot more people looking into this.
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  I think a lot of people are recognizing the pitfalls of AI.
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  There are lots of lawsuits going on right now for harm that
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  has been caused when AI acts as a therapist, especially all on
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  its own.
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  And so a lot of people I think are moving toward this
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  AI-assisted care, meaning AI can help with scheduling, administrative notes,
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  treatment planning, outcome tracking, and maybe even providing support between
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  sessions.
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  And the hope is that if this is managed by a human,
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  maybe it will not go astray as it has in some of
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  the AI alone models.
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  I think it's possible that this is a best of both worlds,
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  figuring out how we integrate this, but also how we do this
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  safely and wisely with client care at the core of what we're
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  gonna do here.
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  And I think everybody's gonna have to ask the questions of what
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  are we comfortable with, what is ethical, and what makes the most
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  sense in our context.
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  But it also brings questions about privacy, consent, data security, what's lost
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  if too much is automated, how to preserve the therapeutic alliance, how
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  to make sure digital tools don't reinforce inequities to access.
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  And that is something that a lot of people have started to
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  write about.
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  Even just the more and more accepted business models we know that
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  tech companies have literally said they are selling people's data.
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  They are selling what we call protected health information that most of
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  us were trained to protect no matter what.
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  So some of these ethical things are being thrown out in the
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  name of business.
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  And I think we're gonna continue to see how do we regulate,
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  how do we talk about these two pieces?
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  And that kind of leads me to AI and the government or
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  public sector.
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  Because even if you don't choose to use it in your practice,
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  it's happening all around us.
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  The Department of Health and Human Services released a strategy recently
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  expanding AI across all their internal operations, their data analysis, public
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  health efforts, and possibly even care delivery.
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  So on paper, this improves efficiency, right?
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  This reduces overhead, all of those good things.
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  But at the same time, it raises concerns with privacy, with security,
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  with oversight of sensitive health data.
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  With who is making decisions?
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  Are we letting AI make decisions for human beings that is not
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  necessarily appropriate?
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  Where is confidentiality supported?
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  How do we build trust?
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  So these are things we're gonna have to watch as it plays
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  out.
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  And I don't think that the legislation or the governing bodies are
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  able to keep up right now with putting in guidance, with putting
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  in strategy, with putting in guidelines to offer protection to the people.
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  The next topic that is coming up more and more is affordability
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  of services and insurance pressures.
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  The financial side of mental health care.
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  So many people I know have experienced that premiums are rising.
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  It is getting to be more and more expensive to get coverage
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  for insurance.
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  And that creates challenges for clients, that creates challenges for patients,
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  that creates challenges for practices.
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  All of this is happening where cost to members is going up,
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  but pay out to providers is going down.
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  And so employer-based health insurance continues to rise.
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  And this is making it harder for companies to provide that care
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  for their employees.
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  It's making harder for employees to purchase the care.
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  And I think as we see these rising costs happen more and
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  more, it's gonna be a challenge to see how does that impact
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  mental health care?
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  I think we've already seen people who say, I can't even afford
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  my co-pay anymore.
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  There are also economic challenges that are impacting people in so many
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  ways, in so many different places in this country.
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  And that is having an impact on whether someone can even access
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  care with insurance.
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  Medicaid costs and cuts are also going to potentially play into this.
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  How are those cuts going to make access to care possible for
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  people that maybe relied on Medicaid for their mental health care?
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  These are all things that we're going to see play out as
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  the year goes on and good things for us to be thinking
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  about and talking about.
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  Finally, we hear a lot about global mental health crisis.
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  And there are people who need care and cannot access it, but
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  we are also seeing a shift now.
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  Truly the marketing of a lot of these larger tech companies has
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  been that they are helping to bridge the gap, that there is
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  a mental health crisis, we don't have enough providers and we need
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  to be able to bridge that gap.
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  As they are buying up more and more market share, what is
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  happening to people that are already in the industry is that they
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  are starting to see that shift as well.
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  So as these online companies grow, perhaps in the people that they
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  are providing care to, those who have been in this industry for
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  years, whether as a private practice or a small group practice, small
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  business, they are seeing the need to begin to market services where
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  they used to have wait lists and more patients than they can
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  serve.
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  We are seeing a shift.
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  It's been interesting to talk to different practices and different solo
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  providers who are starting to say, I've never had to think about
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  clients.
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  There's always been an overabundance of clients or patients.
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  And now we're starting to see that shift in different places.
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  It's more so than others, but I think this is part of
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  us seeing the trend of big tech companies and their market share.
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  And that is reducing the number of people that are going to
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  the smaller individual private practitioners.
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  Maybe this could be said to be growth and part of what
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  is happening.
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  It's a little bit of what maybe happened with Walmart coming in
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  and the small main street stores, if you will.
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  So I think it's just worth talking about that while yes, there
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  are places where there are not enough services for patients, that is
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  true.
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  However, businesses, private practices are also starting to suffer and not
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  having enough clients because a lot of these bigger companies and managed
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  service organizations are hiring the very limited pool of clinicians.
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  And so that's kind of another piece is that we definitely have
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  a workforce gap happening.
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  The median number of mental health workers globally, so globally, not just
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  in the United States, but is 13 per a hundred thousand people.
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  That's tough.
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  Government spending on mental health remains low, often about 2% of
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  total health budgets, leaving of course gaps in coverage.
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  But even as these gaps are happening, another gap I see is
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  that we just said limited spending on calling a master's degree counselor
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  or a master's degree social worker an actual professional degree.
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  And so how is this gonna impact an already low workforce of
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  mental health providers?
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  We're also seeing that the workforce is a lot of newer and
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  younger providers that have come into the field, which is awesome.
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  But there's also a need for training, for supervision, for gaining some
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  of the expertise to deal with the complexity of mental health challenges
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  that people are facing in this day and age.
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  So another topic to talk about, so many options to making sure
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  that we are again, focusing on providing the best client care that
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  we can possibly provide.
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  I think that's a good guiding point, a good North star for
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  us to kind of look at and try to be focusing on
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  it.
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  How do we do that in a way that is beneficial, that
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  is ethical, that reaches the people that need it the most, that
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  reaches all people who need it.
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  Ideally, so these are the things on my mind.
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  These are the things going into the new year that we are
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  bringing on guests to talk about.
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  And as I've mentioned, if you wanna access any of the articles
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  that I've referenced in here, they will be in our show notes
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  and in our newsletter.
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  If you are not receiving our newsletter and you'd like to, please
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  email us at the M-H-E-P-O-D, that's the
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  M-H-E-P-O-D at gmail.com.
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  You can also direct message us on social media and we'll make
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  sure that we can get you on our newsletter list.
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  We also wanna hear from you.
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  You've heard about this.
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  We have some polls out there and we'd like to hear your
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  suggestions on topics for guests, things that you're thinking about and things
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  that are impacting you no matter which part of the industry you're
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  in, whether you're receiving care, whether you're providing care or whether you
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  are a business in this industry.
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  So the work we do in this industry is important.
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  It's important that we continue to raise the conversations with all of
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  the players and that we make the best choices that we possibly
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  can going forward.
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  Here is to a great new year.
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  I hope you all are taking care of yourselves and I can't
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  wait to talk more about the mental health evolution with you this
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  year.
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  Bye for now.
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  Thanks for listening to the Mental Health Evolution podcast.
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  Join the conversation.
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  Find us on social, send us your thoughts and tell us what
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  you're seeing in your corner of the mental health world.
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  Until next time, stay curious and keep evolving.
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  Live radio, local podcasts, the Frederick Podcast Network at listenfrederick
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  .com.