Breaking Down Barriers to Mental Health

Meadows Institute leaders discuss the power of collaboration and innovation at the 79th United Nations General Assembly

September 25, 2024

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute President and CEO Andy Keller addresses the Science Summit at the 79th United Nations General Assembly.

Delivering welcoming remarks at the start of the Science Summit at the 79th United Nations General Assembly on September 19, Andy Keller, the president and CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, shared two lessons he’s learned since the founding of the Meadows Institute ten years ago: No single organization can fix this country’s beleaguered mental health system alone, and reform must be largescale, not piecemeal.

“We realized pretty quickly that the core structure, the mis-designed structure of mental health systems in the United States, and globally, we couldn’t just fix from Texas,” Keller told the audience of researchers, policymakers, educators and business leaders gathered in New York City for the high-profile event.

Fixing those systems requires a wide range of people and constituents—investors, health systems, insurers, consumers, patients, and researchers—working together across state lines and international borders to figure out solutions, said Keller, and pressing policymakers for changes when structural, financial, or regulatory barriers get in the way of progress.

The summit provided an opportunity for the Meadows Institute to extend its vision beyond Texas and help influence mental health policy and practice on the national and international stage. In fact, collaboration was a major theme, as evidenced by the announcement on the second day of the conference that the Meadows Institute is joining the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, the European Brain Council (EBC), the Brain Capital Alliance, and UsAgainstAlzheimer’s to launch a new worldwide campaign to place brain health at the top of global health and economic agendas.

Such interdisciplinary collaboration has already resulted in unprecedented opportunities to improve brain health—neurological and mental—since the Meadows Institute’s founding, Keller said. “In 10 short years, we have seen hundreds in changes in laws and billions of dollars in new funding. It’s exciting to be part of that.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul delivered a keynote speech in which she said she was proud of her state’s efforts to prioritize mental health, pointing to efforts to safeguard minors from addictive social media algorithms and the restoration of desperately needed psychiatric beds that were repurposed as COVID-19 treatment beds during the pandemic.

Andy Keller greets New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who delivered a keynote address on the ways her state has prioritized mental health.

Despite such progress, structural barriers still stand in the way of “our most well-intentioned efforts,” said Keller, and need to be “broken down and disrupted” with the help of three levers: the business community, which provides most health insurance, private investment and ARPA-H, the federal research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs to provide health solutions for all.

Introducing a panel discussion titled “Implementing innovation in brain health across sectors” moderated by the Meadows Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer Kacie Kelly, Keller pointed to the psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) as an example of what he called “constructive disruption.”

By integrating specialty behavioral health care into primary care, Keller said, CoCM can detect mental illnesses sooner, with 90 randomized clinical trials showing that it works. Furthermore, he said, CoCM represents a better deployment of resources, because psychiatrists can see eight times as many patients via this model, and it’s paid for by Medicare and private insurance.

“At the Meadows Institute, we know that innovation includes scaling solutions that are available today, so more people can access them,” said Kelly.

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute Chief Innovation Officer Kacie Kelly moderated a panel on innovation across sectors at the UN summit.

One audience member expressed doubt that even perfect solutions could be deployed nationwide, and many worried about the effects of stigma, but the panelists expressed optimism for what can be accomplished through cross-sector collaboration.

“We’ve learned from Meadows that talking about stigma only reinforces it,” said Katie Yeutter, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Instead, she urged the audience to speak “through the lens of hope.”

John Bailey, founder of Vestigo Partners and advisor to Fiore Ventures and the Penner Family Foundation, said “innovation always hits headwinds,” pointing to the payment system as an example. “Payers don’t know how much to pay for an innovation they have never seen. To get smarter on it, you need pilots and to facilitate cross-sector learnings,” said Bailey.

“Now is not the time to stay in your lane,” urged Kelly, calling upon the audience to use the event to learn new perspectives and new ways of solving mental health challenges.

“Take advantage of this moment,” said Bailey. There is bipartisan support for tackling the youth mental health crisis, he added. “Use this moment, where we have a seat at the table, to create bigger tents.”