Mental Health America 2026 Priorities
Learn more about our mental health policy priorities for 2026.
Learn more about our mental health policy priorities for 2026.
MHA focuses on prevention and early intervention, working to ensure that funding is allocated upstream. MHA advocates for a public health approach to mental health and integrating behavioral health in primary care and school settings. MHA is a leader in advocating for mental health screening and mental health literacy as part of overall health education. We also recognize the importance of upstream drivers of mental health and substance use and overall health. We advocate for screening, collecting data, researching effective interventions, eliminating disparities, and addressing these drivers, which include sleep, social connection, exercise, and purpose, as well as housing, transportation, and access to nutritious food.
In 2025, MHA proposed and secured report language in both House and Senate annual spending bills for Fiscal Year 2026, encouraging the National Institute of Mental Health to research youth peer support and increase its efforts to engage young people in research.
Because insurance coverage is critical to accessing mental health and substance use services, MHA advocates for policies that maintain coverage, especially during this time of state implementation of Medicaid work requirements and federal reduction in Affordable Care Act tax credits. MHA continues its longstanding commitment to achieving fairness in coverage of mental health and substance use services and to improving the accuracy of provider directories and the adequacy of networks across payers. MHA fights to remove barriers to accessing effective treatment for the person with mental health or substance use conditions, recognizing that treatment must be tailored to the person’s needs, not the payers’ restrictions. MHA continues its efforts to increase federal and state annual appropriations for mental health and substance use services.
MHA recognizes innovation has the potential to improve people’s experience and outcomes through democratizing knowledge, providing access and empathy, and fostering community and connection. At the same time, MHA seeks accountability to ensure privacy and prevent mental health and substance use harm for those using new technologies. MHA also advocates for greater literacy (social media, AI and digital), navigation, and support to ensure everyone can benefit from technology and innovation. Furthermore, MHA understands that existing treatments do not work for far too many people and supports payment pathways and regulatory processes that lead to new options, such as digital treatments and psychedelics, among others.
MHA has advocated over several years with the behavioral health community, and in Fall 2025, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act was enacted, reauthorizing key substance use programs, including the Peer Support Technical Assistance Center at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
We recognize the importance of developing a well-trained workforce, especially providers who can effectively use their lived experience to support others’ recovery and goal attainment. We support legislation that promotes fair reimbursement for mental health counselors and social workers who are in training and require supervision. MHA advocates for funding a community-based workforce who can aid in deflection from law enforcement responses to crisis and facilitate non-coercive, non-carceral care that is person-centered, such as peer respites and mobile crisis teams. We also fight for more investment in the school-based mental health workforce.
Learn more about Mental Health America’s policy and advocacy efforts.