nami.org/ | Dec 16, 2025 |
Partnering with Harvard-affiliated digital psychiatry researchers led by Dr. John Torous, the project will examine how AI tools perform when people seek help.
Arlington, VA — The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation’s largest grassroots mental health advocacy nonprofit, is launching a first-of-its-kind effort to develop benchmarks for assessing how artificial intelligence (AI) tools respond when people seek mental health information and support.
This work is being done in partnership with Dr. John Torous and the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School-affiliated teaching hospital and national leader in digital mental health research. Together, NAMI and Dr. Torous are taking a careful, long-term look at how AI tools actually behave when people ask real questions about mental health, with the goal of providing clear, independent information the public can trust.
How Can AI Help with Mental Health?
“AI is moving fast. It can open new doors and connect people to help in ways we have never seen before,” said Daniel H. Gillison Jr., NAMI’s chief executive officer. “But without the right safeguards, it can put people at risk. That is why we are stepping in. People deserve clear, trustworthy information, and they deserve to know when a tool may not be safe.”
New national polling reinforces the need for clarity and safeguards. In a NAMI/Ipsos poll*, 12% of adults said they are likely to use AI chatbots to seek mental health treatment or therapy in the next six months, with 1% saying they already do so. AI does not represent clinical expertise, and the high number of individuals looking to this as a resource highlights that people need reliable information before deciding what, if anything, is right for them.
“This data tells a clear story,” Gillison said. “People are curious about AI, and they need to know how these tools respond when people need help. This is especially important for something as personal as mental health. That’s why NAMI is stepping forward to bring guidance, accountability, and the voice of lived experience into this space.”
The early phases of the project will look at three core areas:
- Safety and crisis response.
Whether tools recognize when someone may be in distress and offer appropriate, safe next steps. - Accuracy and quality of information.
Whether responses are factually correct, consistent with evidence, and free of harmful or misleading claims. - Cultural relevance and human support.
Whether AI tools respond respectfully across cultures, identities, and lived experiences and whether they offer supportive, human-centered language.
“AI tools are not a substitute for mental health care, but many people are already using them to ask questions or find support,” Dr. Torous said. “Some tools can help when used responsibly, but others can cause harm. With NAMI, we want to create an independent, evidence-informed resource that helps people understand the strengths and limitations of these tools.”
This initiative builds on NAMI’s long-standing commitment to centering the voices of people with lived experience. Through its national network, NAMI will involve peers, family members, affiliate leaders, clinicians, and researchers to ensure the work reflects what people truly need and value when looking for help.
Learn more about NAMI’s AI initiative at nami.org/AI.
About NAMI
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. Through education, advocacy, support, and public awareness, NAMI works to ensure that all individuals and families affected by mental health conditions receive the help and support they need. Learn more at nami.org.
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About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a leading academic medical center, where extraordinary care is supported by high-quality education and research. BIDMC is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,700 physicians and 39,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.
*The NAMI/Ipsos poll was conducted November 7–9, 2025 using Ipsos’ probability-based KnowledgePanel® and is based on a nationally representative sample of 2,046 adults age 18 or older. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.3 percentage points.
