The Benchmark blog
Notes on measured mental health care.
Writing from co-founder Dr. Tom Insel — former NIMH director — on where mental health care is going and how measurement gets it there. Published on Substack, gathered here.
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From Tom's Substack
On the Shoulders of Giants
All of us benefit from the generosity of mentors. Standing on the shoulders of giants is ultimately the only way we create the future. Most of the giants in my career – Irwin (Bob) Feinberg, Sydney Brenner, Herb Pardes are now dead and, in…
April 26, 2026 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
A Video Game, a Postcard, and a Grandmother
What if one of the most promising treatments for reducing the intrusive thoughts after trauma involved 20 minutes of playing Tetris? It sounds improbable. But a new randomized trial in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that a simple visual…
March 9, 2026 · 3 min read
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From Tom's Substack
A Bridge to Care
I’ve been thinking a lot about safety for people using gen-AI chatbots for mental health. The number of weekly ChatGPT users recently surpassed 900 million. Monthly active Google Gemini users just surpassed 750 million. How many of these…
March 5, 2026 · 5 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Chatbot Safety
This may be the year when more people turn to chatbots than to human therapists for psychological support and guidance. The numbers point in that direction. Since the pandemic, according to a report based on the National Health Interview…
January 27, 2026 · 6 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Our Copernican Year
For Father’s Day this year, my adult son gave me Full Self-Driving software for my Tesla Model Y. I was not immediately grateful. I like driving. I was not looking for software to take over. And, like over 80% of drivers, I am convinced I…
December 20, 2025 · 3 min read
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From Tom's Substack
America’s Not-So-Inevitable Greatness in Science
When I was growing up, my father wanted me to learn German. He had come of age when German was the language of science and when Vienna and Berlin were home to many of the world’s leading physicists, chemists and medical researchers. But by…
December 1, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Why Are So Many Americans Turning to Bots for Therapy?
Last week, FDA’s Digital Health Advisory Committee heard testimony about A.I.-enabled digital mental health medical devices. It was a marathon session with comments from entrepreneurs, professional societies, academics, and many more. The…
November 13, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
AI and Mental Health: Red Flag Laws are Not the Answer
I confess -- I was anxious before my first Waymo ride. Getting into a driverless car felt like a high-risk experiment. Ironically, as Louis Anslow noted in a wonderful essay, when we first switched from horse-drawn to horseless carriages…
November 5, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Measures That Matter
When Americans talk about fixing the nation’s mental health system, three priorities come up again and again: reduce stigma, expand access, and grow the workforce. All of these help people engage in care. But, for me, the inconvenient…
October 30, 2025 · 5 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist What Comes After the Trauma Era I like the word “zeitgeist”. A product of 19th century German philosophy, “zeitgeist” is literally “zeit” (time or age) combined with “geist” (spirit or mind) – the spirit of the age. Like the…
October 20, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Chat GPT and Me
Shortly after my second grandchild was born, I started a diary. The original idea was to capture the silly expressions and special moments I’d been too busy to record when my children were growing up. In time, the diary became something…
October 13, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Some Elder Thoughts on Youth Mental Health
When I talk about the public health challenges in behavioral health, I usually start with a familiar trio: serious mental illness, substance use disorder, and youth mental health. An individual can suffer from all three, but from a public…
October 6, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
What Does It Mean to Be a Scientist
Earlier this month, I received the following essay in an e-mail from Dr. Kathy Pike. Dr. Pike is the CEO of One Mind, a mental health advocacy organization that funds early career scientists. Her essay was an announcement of the 2025…
September 30, 2025 · 3 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Career Advice
Lately, a lot of people in the mental health field have been asking me for career advice. Their question: “Where can I have the most impact?” Other than saying, “Don’t do what I did”, I’m not sure what to recommend. I’ve had one of those…
September 25, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
The Fourth P
If you’ve read my book, Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health , you know the main message: recovery requires the three P’s. True confession: this was not my idea. I first heard about the 3 P’s from Dr. Jonathan Sherin, who…
September 1, 2025 · 4 min read
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From Tom's Substack
What's Next for Digital Mental Health
Mental health may be the area of healthcare in the greatest need of transformation. Despite progress in science and increased investment by both governments and the private sector, the current system is not working for patients, providers…
August 20, 2025 · 3 min read
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From Tom's Substack
AI4MH
A recent survey published in the Harvard Business Review reported that the number one use of Generative AI (Gen-AI) is now “therapy.” While human therapist might be surprised to hear that bots are now performing therapy, the popularity of…
August 7, 2025 · 5 min read
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From Tom's Substack
Beyond a Culture of Scarcity
When we talk about mental health, we inevitably talk about mental healthcare. And when we talk about mental healthcare, much of the focus is on scarcity: a limited workforce, too little investment, a lack of access. For each of these…
July 28, 2025 · 4 min read
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