Hi friend,
I’ve landed in London.
My first learning? That “y’alright?” is not a question, it’s a statement. This explains why my uber driver looked so shocked when I started telling him how I was feeling after he greeted me… I just thought he was interested in my wellbeing…
Anyway, it was a crazy busy week in the mental health space. And it’s busy in the Hemingway community too. We launched new resources (funding and grant databases), are hosting an expert session on using science to create value, have a London members dinner this week and much more. We’ve got over 340 members in the community now so if you’re in this space, you should considering applying. Details are here. We’re also hiring!
But let’s get into it.
What happened in mental health last week?
Business News:
⏺️ Talkiatry raised a $210M Series D. The psychiatry provider will double down on AI capabilities for patient engagement. They also secured a new debt facility from Banc of Canada as part of the round. (link)
⏺️ Big Health raised $23.7M. The digital therapeutics company behind Sleepio and Daylight secured funding from .406 Ventures and others. This is a ray of hope for digital therapeutics after a challenging few years. (link)
⏺️ Somethings raised a $19.2M Series A. The youth peer support platform will use the funding to expand its teen mental health services. They’re hiring several roles in NYC. (link)
⏺️ Here Now Health announced their pre-seed round. The company provides behavioural health support for children in foster care and raised funding led by SoGal Ventures. I’m a big fan of their founder, Michelle and her mission. This is another great example of a population-focused business gaining traction in 2026. (link)
⏺️ Avela Health raised $10M. The company offers virtual autism diagnostic and support services. (link)
⏺️ Grow Therapy acquired Tenor Therapy. The Tenor team will embed themselves into Grow and the Tenor product will be shut down this month. (link)
⏺️ Kintsugi is shutting down. The mental health voice biomarker startup will shut down and move its research and technology into the public domain, creating an interesting open-source legacy for the field. (link)
⏺️ Capital One took control of Discovery Behavioral Health. After defaulting on their debt, the company was taken over by its lender. As Chris Larson remarked, this is the first time he has ever seen a bank actually repossess and run a behavioural health business. (link)
⏺️ ACCESS rates disappoint. The maximum annual rates for ACCESS, the new US outcomes-based program, have been released and are disappointingly low. Behavioural health rates are capped at $180 per patient annually (or $144 if patient cost-sharing is waived). Exits & Outcomes has great analysis on this that is worth reading. (link)
⏺️ Digital mental health treatment billing remains minimal. More reporting from Exits & Outcomes noted that only 291 claims were filed for the Digital Mental Health Treatment device supply code in the US from Q1-Q3 2025, with just 280 unique patients receiving qualifying digital therapeutics. Even more concerning, only 176 of those patients saw a provider after their prescription, suggesting low follow-through rates. (link)
⏺️ Thrive Center announced their Spring 2026 Innovation Hub cohort. The cohort includes Antelope Recovery, Braver, Enlightapp, Here Now Health, Labhya, Maro, and Parent Sense. (link)
⏺️ Ireland's HSE partnered with Togetherall to expand access. The HSE will expand the anonymous, clinically moderated online peer support to 2,000 young people this year. (link)
⏺️ Kaiser Permanente settled with the Department of Labor. The settlement over mental health access represents continued enforcement of mental health parity requirements by federal regulators. As part of the settlement, KP will pay $28.3M to cover the costs of out of network services patients were forced to recieve. (link)
⏺️ Illinois bill could shift $100M in costs. The proposed legislation would move behavioural health expenses from state programs to commercial insurance plans. (link)
⏺️ Spring Health provided more detail on VERA-MH, their AI safety standard. The company shared its framework for AI chatbot suicide risk detection, offering another potential common safety standard. (link)
⏺️ The Mental Health Coalition launched teen online safety standards. The standards and ratings framework gives platforms specific guidelines for protecting teen mental health, addressing growing concerns about social media's impact on young people. (link)
⏺️ The Meharry School of Global Health launched the Mental Health ROI Calculator. The tool enables decision-makers to model the economic impact of mental health investments on workforce wellbeing, economic stability, and community health. (link)
Research News:
⏺️ LLMs show near-expert reliability in judging empathic communication. Nature Machine Intelligence research found that large language models can evaluate nuances of empathic communication with reliability approaching trained experts (median agreement score 0.60). (link)
⏺️ Digital measurement-based care proposed for youth mental health. Commentary in Nature Mental Health argued that youth mental health trajectories are too complex for traditional tools to predict reliably. The researchers propose digital measurement-based care as a scalable solution for continuous, adaptive monitoring. (link)
⏺️ Nature Medicine reviewed psychedelic medicine mechanisms. A major review synthesised evidence showing psychedelics work through acute neural desynchronisation that destabilises entrenched brain patterns, followed by subacute neuroplasticity that creates windows for psychological change. The review highlights promising therapeutic results across depression, anxiety, and PTSD, while noting open questions about subjective experience, safety, and scalability. (link)
⏺️ AIM Youth Mental Health launched Clinical Science Fellowship. The organisation opened applications for fellowships worth $25,000-$50,000 supporting postdoctoral researchers implementing evidence-based youth mental health innovations. The one-year program requires fellows to mentor youth co-researchers and focuses on interventions ready for near-term dissemination or scaling. (link)
Phew! That was a lot! I hope you found it valuable.
If you’d like to discuss this news with like-minded peers, consider becoming a Hemingway Pro member. You will join our community of over 340 mental health leaders, and get access to exclusive content. You can learn more here.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Steve Duke
Founder of Hemingway
