The Kennedy Forum closed out 2025 with dynamic breakout sessions at Alignment for Progress, where leaders spoke candidly about this moment in time.
At the second Alignment for Progress workshop in December, The Kennedy Forum asked participants to tackle real problems in the mental health and substance use space — and they delivered.
People rolled up their sleeves and dug into challenges as specific as parity reporting and as sweeping as how to scale youth mental health interventions. Across these dynamic conversations, one takeaway rose above the rest: the mental health community must act urgently and strategically to shape the field, or others will do it for us — or without us. We look forward to carrying these insights forward as we continue our work in 2026.
The Key to Reigniting Action is “Thawing the Freeze”
Navigating disruption in health care and policy right now can feel like moving through darkness, unsure of what lies ahead. Anecdotally, the experts in the room described a “freeze state,” where political and policy uncertainty combined with an influx of information have caused a sort of existential overwhelm. How should we move forward to create action? We need advocates to help “thaw” relationships and provide clear, simple narratives rooted in our shared human experiences and goals. The group urged:
- Reaching out proactively to both obvious and previously “unlikely” allies – including those outside of the mental health ecosystem
- Leveraging bipartisan openings like transparency, workforce, and data
- Reframing today’s disruption as an opportunity to redesign systems that have long failed people
Mental Health Parity Progress Hinges on Parity Reporting
Our dynamic parity breakout session brought together payers, providers, and advocates, with the group agreeing on critical next steps: developing recommendations to EBSA, including guidance on a model parity reporting template that can bring greater clarity and consistency to compliance. Participants noted that prior EBSA reports already provide useful examples and should be built upon rather than reinvented. They also brainstormed the value of having examples that illustrate a range of acceptable reporting — shifting from a simple “pass/fail” approach to something more like a grading system.
Across perspectives, there was shared recognition that the system’s problems — from poor mental health outcomes to burdensome MH/SUD protocols — cannot be solved through siloed thinking, processes, and procedures. Every element of parity law involves different people, departments, organizations, and fields – and we must ensure that everyone who touches a piece of parity understands the greater goals of ensuring people get the quality help they need to get better.
To Scale Success for Young People, We Must Build the Ecosystem Around It
We held two breakout sessions dedicated to youth mental health — one centered on funding and economic levers, and the other on scalable, statewide action. Despite approaching the issue from different angles, both groups surfaced similar core truths about what it takes to create meaningful, lasting change for young people:
- Scaling youth mental health solutions requires rebuilding the systems around them. Pilots often fail not because interventions are flawed, but because the systems that surround them are not designed to support or replicate success at scale. Financing and policy structures must evolve to support long-term, population-level outcomes, understanding that sustainable reform depends on financial models that reward long-term impact rather than short-term volume.
- Both sessions pointed to the importance of interoperable data systems, clear measures of success, and cross-agency coordination to ensure agencies, providers, and schools can work toward common goals. Executive action, strategic appointments, and policy alignment were all cited as essential tools for creating coherence across a fragmented system.
AI’s Promise and Perils Point to Our Need to Act as a Group
The promise of AI in mental health is clear — from reducing provider burden to scaling evidence-based knowledge and improving data interoperability — but so are the risks. AI can be unreliable, whether due to inaccuracies, hallucinations, or the potential to worsen certain mental health conditions. These concerns are especially serious for youth, whose development depends on human interaction and whose ability to discern accurate from flawed AI outputs is still emerging. The group emphasized the need for a coordinated communications strategy, broad coalition-building, youth-centered AI literacy efforts, and sector-wide accountability mechanisms, including a shared framework for providers, such as an “AI Hippocratic Oath.” The takeaway is simple: Emerging technology requires the field to maximize opportunity and minimize risk, embracing what’s possible while keeping potential harms in view – and at arm’s length.
What’s Next? Stay Connected to the Movement
The Alignment for Progress Workshop is just the beginning. Follow The Kennedy Forum on LinkedIn for the latest updates, insights, and opportunities to collaborate. You can also sign up for our email updates to stay informed about the next steps in advancing mental health equity and driving progress in the brain health economy.
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