Beyond borders: Connecting global digital mental health systems

In November 2025, global mental health leaders from 24 countries met in Toronto for a Think Tank convened by Nous Group and SANE Australia. Their task was to identify the two or three priorities the international community can progress together to achieve connected mental health care.

The conversation brought together the experiences of system users and help seekers with perspectives from leaders, academics, and practitioners across jurisdictions. A clear message emerged: mental health systems are struggling to keep pace with rapid technological change. Services remain fragmented, digital tools are multiplying, and many people seeking support are left to navigate a confusing and often unsafe landscape. Artificial intelligence is only adding to the confusion.

This report captures the Think Tank’s shared ambition: to move from siloed services and disconnected digital solutions toward evidence-informed, learning mental health systems shaped by lived experience. Participants identified the foundations of that shift. These include stronger outcomes frameworks, integrated government systems, person-controlled data, digitally skilled workforces, and governance models that embed lived experience, caregiver, and community leadership.

The Think Tank also identified three international projects for 2026: an evidence-based Mental Health Outcomes Framework, a best practice guide for lived experience leadership, and a living list of AI tools currently used in mental health. All agreed that the challenge for governments, providers, innovators and communities is to shape that transformation deliberately, safely, and collectively. Without coordinated global action, technology may deepen the barriers it promises to remove. With coordinated action, countries can learn from each other’s successes, avoid past mistakes, and build mental health systems that are easier to navigate, safer to use and better connected around the people they exist to serve.

Get in touch to discuss how connected, person-centered mental health systems can improve outcomes and make care easier to navigate.

Connect with Ray Messom and Matt Guilding on LinkedIn.