Hi friend,
What’s beeen happening in mental health?
In the US, Federal and State bodies are tightening oversight of the US behavioural health system. This comes as a response to concerns over fraud and the overall rising costs of behavioural health programs.
Elsewhere, Limbic launched an AI Scribe, DiMe announced a set of validated digital measures for mental disorders and Open AI announced more funding for research on the impact of AI.
In research, evidence suggests CBT is no more effective than active controls in the treatment of depression in primary care and remote work was found to worsen mental health.
There’s lots more happening too, so let’s get into it.
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What happened in mental health last week?
Business News:
⏺️ Radley Health raised $3M. The Cincinnati-based company operates 450+ certified peer support specialists across 70+ Ohio counties. (link)
⏺️ HPS Investment Partners took a majority stake in Discovery Behavioral Health. HPS took control of the behavioural health provider after the company defaulted on debt obligations originally entered with HPS and Capital One in 2021. (link)
⏺️ CMS finalises new Medicaid work requirements. Certain adults 19-64 must complete 80 hours per month of qualifying activity to maintain Medicaid eligibility from January 2027. (link)
⏺️ Oregon replaced 30-year county behavioural health model with updated statewide contracts. The new County Financial Assistance Agreements replace a 30-year-old contractual model and give the state a real-time view of how counties deploy state-funded behavioural health resources. (link)
⏺️ Two states tightened behavioural health fraud enforcement. Massachusetts sued UnitedHealthcare for $100M, alleging members were misclassified as having behavioural health or substance use disorders without valid diagnoses to receive higher Medicaid capitation payments. Ohio launched enhanced licensure reviews and expanded anti-fraud coordination with Medicaid and the attorney general, triggered in part by a separate $30M federal fraud case filed the same week. (link) (link)
⏺️ Limbic launched Limbic Scribe. The new AI Scribe product embeds TORTUS's Medical Device-certified ambient voice technology into Limbic Care, automatically generating clinical letters and notes using standardised templates. (link)
⏺️ UK Parliament opens evidence session on children and young people's mental health. The UK Education and Health and Social Care committees launched a joint survey to hear from young people who have received mental health services. They will also host their first evidence session of their children and young people’s mental health inquiry this Wednesday, June 10th, . (link)
⏺️ One Mind at Work published a report finding that only 1 in 4 employers has a formal workforce mental health strategy. One Mind at Work's 2026 Mental Health at Work Index Annual Report analysed data from 149 organisations representing 2.75 million workers across 25 industries and 23 countries. While only 1 in 4 employers have a formal workforce mental health strategy, those that do see 36% lower voluntary turnover. The report includes other interesting insights and is worth a read for anyone interested in workforce mental health. (link)
⏺️ Orygen announced $5.7M in grant funding from Wellcome for their AI-powered youth mental health project. The grant will fund AI4You(th), a two-year project developing SensAI, an AI system designed to support both young people and clinicians with personalised care between clinical contacts. (link)
⏺️ OpenAI appears to have notified successful applicants to for its reearch funding program on AI and mental health. The succesful applicants include researchers from York University with a project entitled “Preventing Cognitive Atrophy in LLM Mental Health Support Through Psychometric Evaluation and Therapist-Aligned Design”. I have been unable to find a complete list of funded projects. (link).
⏺️ The same week, the OpenAI Foundation announced $130M+ in grants under their AI Resilience program. The program targets bio-resilience, cyber-resilience, AI model safety, and AI's impact on young people. The Foundation expects to invest $25B across AI Resilience and Life Sciences in the years ahead. (link)
⏺️ DiMe publishes first digital measures set built specifically for common mental health disorders. DATAcc by the Digital Medicine Society released seven sensor-based measures, covering sleep, physical activity, daily routine variability, cognitive function, speech and language, autonomic function, and facial and gaze features, that meet the evidence bar for use in clinical trials, phenotyping, and value-based care. The set also identifies concepts of interest for which no validated measure yet exists. These measures were developed with 30+ partners including the FDA, BetterHelp, Talkspace, and the APA. It was commissioned by Wellcome. (link)
Research News:
⏺️ CBT found to be no more effective than other active treatments for depression in primary care. Across 44 RCTs with 10,000+ participants, CBT outperformed inactive controls (g = 0.44) but showed no clear advantage over antidepressants, exercise, or other talking therapies. Self-help CBT showed no significant benefit over inactive controls. (link)
⏺️ Peer-led intervention reduced depression and anxiety among transgender adults in Delhi. The Manthan study enrolled 62 participants in a 12-month peer-support program. Depression scores fell from 13.1 to 7.0 and anxiety scores from 11.2 to 6.0. Over 60% achieved clinically significant improvement in depression and 59% in anxiety. Attendance exceeded 91%. There was no control condition and the authors have called for multi-site RCTs. (link)
⏺️ A four-session perinatal intervention reduced depression in high-risk mothers and partners. The Chinese RCT of 100 dyads found significantly lower maternal depressive symptoms at 2-3 days and 6 weeks postpartum. Paternal benefits were less consistent over time. (link)
⏺️ Slingshot published research on how pregnant and postpartum people use an AI mental health tool. The primary finding was that perinatal distress rose across the postpartum year among participants. Across 419 users, identity strain and emotional exhaustion increased through 12 months postpartum while positive affect declined. Among users entering with moderate-to-severe depression (PHQ-9 ≥10), model-estimated scores declined by 2.41 points over 8 weeks (d = 0.58). FYI, there was no control condition, PHQ-9 scores are model-estimated and this paper has not yet been peer reviewed. (link)
⏺️ Torous and colleagues call for new consent frameworks for training AI on therapy data. The commentary argues that “existing consent models do not adequately protect autonomy and confidentiality” and calls for explicit opt-in consent for AI training and patient-led governance of how clinical data is used. (link)
⏺️ Remote work found to increase isolation and mental distress, particularly among those living alone. Five nationally representative US surveys covering 588,322 workers found that post-pandemic, remote-capable workers spent more time alone and reduced social activity outside work. Remote workers living alone showed the sharpest increases in mental distress, mental healthcare use, and antidepressant use. The study notes that the findings suggest workers “may not realize the costs of remote work for their well-being, which may take time to accumulate.” (link)
⏺️ More outdoor play in preschool years predicts better mental health trajectories into middle childhood. A longitudinal study of 4,151 Scottish children found each additional day per week of outdoor play at ages 2-4 reduced the likelihood of developing anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems by ages 4-8. Children who played outside more often were significantly less likely to show worsening emotional or behavioural symptoms over time. (link)
That’s all for this week.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Steve Duke
Founder of Hemingway
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