From the CEO: Why Mental Health Is Essential for Brain Health — Advancing Evidence-Based Care

We are beginning to see signs of progress in mental health. Suicide deaths have declined slightly, and youth mental health is improving. Those gains matter, but it’s important to acknowledge that our progress should strengthen our resolve to continue the momentum, not invite complacency.

The scale of the challenge remains enormous. As of March 2026, 148 million people lived in areas where there was a shortage of mental health professionals, up from 137 million in December 2025, according to federal data. At the same time, cuts to Medicaid could decrease the number of people with health insurance by about 7.5 million people by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

So how do we build on the progress we have made while confronting the barriers that remain?

The Connection Between Brain Health and Mental Health

It begins with the brain.

It is widely understood that caring for the brain through sleep, physical activity, social connection and diet – to name a few – supports one’s physical health. But increasingly it is acknowledged that those activities to support physical health also benefit mental health.

The reason is simple: The brain and the mind are inseparable. So, addressing mental health challenges is central to all brain health initiatives.

That fact is being discussed more frequently. Alongside the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City last month, leaders from the McKinsey Health Institute argued during the Global Brain Economy Summit that greater investment in mental health could improve community wellbeing.

At the UCLA Brain Health Summit in March 2026, participants concluded that brain health can no longer remain divided across medicine, policy and technology.

“Instead, participants emphasized integrated approaches spanning prevention, precision medicine, digital health, community resilience, healthy aging, and economic strategy. Within this broader agenda, the question is not whether mental health services contribute to brain capital, but how clinicians and researchers can intentionally strengthen and demonstrate that contribution,” researchers wrote.

But what does that mean?

Innovative Approaches: Transdiagnostic Care

For the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and the more than 3,200 organizations we represent, this focus on brain health and the connection between the brain and mental health is deeply personal. Every day, our members work with people living with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, co-occurring conditions and neurological challenges. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the brain and the mind are inseparable.

When we invest in brain health, we invest in mental wellbeing. When we neglect one, we jeopardize the other.

The brain is the organ that makes us who we are. It’s time we treat it that way. As our understanding about the connection between brain health and mental health advances, so, too, should the delivery of care.

Transdiagnostic care offers our field a practical way to deliver evidence-based care that is built around the whole person. Instead of sending people down separate treatment pathways for depression, trauma, anxiety or substance use, transdiagnostic care breaks effective care into common therapeutic elements and helps providers combine them based on each person’s needs.

This is the kind of clinical innovation behavioral health needs. Mental health is an essential part of brain health, and improving mental health requires more than one intervention. It requires evidence-based care.

This isn’t a fad. It is an important direction for the field and an opportunity to accelerate progress toward making mental wellbeing a reality for everyone, everywhere.

The field of behavioral health can’t be left behind or left out of these discussions about brain health. We must be vocal about the mental health needs of people in our communities. We must be vocal about the value of transdiagnostic care and other evidence-based practices.

We’ve made progress in our efforts to help people with mental health and substance use challenges. But we haven’t made enough progress, and it’s important to acknowledge that we must not be complacent.

If we truly want to help people, it’s time to revolutionize the way we think about mental wellbeing because there is no brain health without mental health.