An eMHIC 2025 Think Tank Publication in collaboration with
SANE Australia and Nous Group
In November 2025, global mental health leaders from 24 countries came together in Toronto for the eMHIC Think Tank to explore the question:
What priorities can be progressed globally to achieve connected mental health care, and what can be done to collaborate on these?
The white paper reflects a clear consensus that health systems everywhere are grappling with rapid technological change. Services are siloed, and the influx of digital tools and AI is making navigation harder, leaving help seekers lost in what the paper describes as a “Google loop of despair”. Without coordinated global action, technology risks reinforcing the barriers it aims to break, including inequity, safety risks, and unclear accountability.
The paper sets out system design principles that can be adapted locally and applied internationally, including meaningful co-design with help seekers, integrated governance and funding, person-controlled data and privacy-preserving standards, digitally skilled workforces, and continuously learning mental health systems supported by shared metrics.
It calls for three international projects to be progressed in 2026:
Establish an evidence-based Mental Health Outcomes Framework for use across the international community
Create a best practice guide to embed the perspectives of patients, caregivers and communities into governance, service design and evaluation
Identify and maintain a living list of AI tools being used in the mental health sector, including how they may be helping or harming patients, providers and the system
The paper notes a shared need for an organisation, or group of organisations, to champion and take responsibility for progressing these actions.
If your organisation supports the direction outlined in this White Paper, we invite you to provide a short written endorsement confirming your support for progressing the 2026 international priorities. Please enter your endorsement in this brief form.
This paper distils the collective wisdom of our global community of experts, united in addressing one of the defining challenges of our time.
In collaboration with SANE Australia and Nous Group
