On June 22, the National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC) met virtually for their Spring 2026 Meeting. The convening included the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Director’s Report, a question-and-answer session with the AC members, and a presentation on the future of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). A grant review session, closed to the public, followed.
Director’s Report
NIMH Acting Director Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, PhD, started the day with her Director’s Report. She first welcomed new AC members Laura Delano, founder of the nonprofit Inner Compass Initiative, and David Cohen, PhD, a social scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Beckel-Mitchener then shared updates on recent congressional activities, including House and Senate budget hearings with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (see previous article) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (see FABBS reporting). She also expressed gratitude for bipartisan support from Congress for NIMH through the House Mental Health Caucus. Additionally, the Acting Director shared that on June 12, Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) visited the NIH Clinical Center, highlighting the importance of providing policymakers with firsthand exposure to important scientific research.
Turning to fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget proposals, Beckel-Mitchener reviewed President Trump’s proposed $41.5 billion for NIH, a 10.8 percent reduction from the FY26 allocated budget and a $200 million reduction for NIMH specifically. Last month, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) proposed a budget of $48.4 billion for NIH, of which $2.2 billion would be allocated to NIMH. This would be the same amount as the enacted FY26 level, with adjustments from the 21st Century Cures Act.
Beckel-Mitchener then touched on Kennedy’s recent efforts to curb psychiatric overprescribing. The HHS Secretary has urged agencies to bring together their collective expertise to determine appropriate prescribing patterns and to expand access to non-medicated treatments such as family support and psychotherapy. A Dear Colleague Letter released the same day highlights the need for informed consent, shared decision-making, and transparent reviews of the risks and benefits of psychiatric medications with patients. This summer, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will host a joint webinar with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on holistic care. In July, HHS will host a Technical Expert Panel to discuss the tapering and discontinuation of psychiatric medications.
In terms of new behavioral health funding opportunities, Beckel-Mitchener highlighted that the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support program was providing $96 million over four years (up to $24 million per year) for research on serious mental illness, substance-use disorders, and co-occurring diseases among the homeless population. Applications for grants are due on July 17, 2026 and can be submitted here.
The Acting Director also reviewed the recent NIH Replication and Reproducibility Initiative launched in April 2026. The three pillars of this initiative are:
- Driving effective NIH replication and reproducibility efforts
- Incentivizing replication and reproducibility sciences across the research enterprise
- Formalizing replication and reproducibility as a scientific discipline
More information on NIH’s interest in this area can be found here.
Beckel-Mitchener shared a new key funding opportunity from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health’s (ARPA-H) $139 million grant across 13 U.S.-based research teams. This grant was made possible through the Evidence-Based Validation & Innovation for Rapid Therapeutics in Behavioral Health Initiative, which builds on the Executive Order (EO) to accelerate the medical treatment of serious mental illnesses. Additionally, SAMHSA has allocated a $69 million fund for serious mental illness and suicide prevention programs, which is divided among three programs.
Beckel-Mitchener ended her report by sharing updates on NIH appointments (see FABBS reporting) and the NIMH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program Symposium, which is scheduled to take place in the fall at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD.
Q&A
Following the Director’s Report, the floor opened to questions from the AC, a majority of which were about disruptions to grant funding and its impacts. Beckel-Mitchener noted that with multi-year awards and more researchers applying for grant funding, many of whom recycle previous unsuccessful applications, the success rate for obtaining funding decreased from 21 percent in 2024 to 11 percent in 2025. She also stated that unless the budget significantly increases, it will be difficult to return to the previous success rate. When asked about how this lapse in funding may affect early career scholars and researchers, Beckel-Mitchener clarified NIMH is doing its best to provide career development support and training to this group.
One AC member noted there has been an intervention-related focus on NIH-funded research and asked whether this recent shift was strategic or coincidental. Beckel-Mitchener clarified this was coincidental, and such projects have simply gotten through the system faster.
Dr. Maria Oquendo, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, presented a strategic plan for the future of the DSM. She noted that future editions of the DSM will still be symptom-based, but with more emphasis on a dimensional approach. Additionally, the future model will use an iterative clinical formulation across diagnosis, symptoms, context, and biology. For more information on the plan, check the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Roadmap for the Future of the DSM.
The next NAMHC meeting is scheduled for September 14–15, 2026.
