Thinking about mental health differently, with technology | HIMSS 2025

Las Vegas – In the field of behavioral health, there are many challenges, and not enough clinicians to meet them.

Arthur C. Evans Jr., CEO of the American Psychological Association, talked about finding new ways to provide mental health services at the HIMSS 20205 Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

Many people have multiple conditions, such as substance use and addiction, and too many aren’t getting the help they need. Arthur C. Evans Jr., CEO of the American Psychological Association, said there’s a dire need for earlier engagements and interventions for those who are struggling, before their conditions worsen.

At a session at the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition, Evans called for a new way of thinking about approaches to mental health.

“I want to build a build an environment for a different way of thinking, and it's very important as we think about technology, because technology cannot solve our problems if they're not based on good ideas,” he said. “So what I want to do is share with you, many different ways in the thinking about how we approach behavioral health problems using technology.”

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The current “black box” model of diagnosis, treatment and discharge is fundamentally flawed, he said. He said it’s an acute care model that doesn’t function well for those with chronic conditions, and the ongoing challenges of patients with behavioral health needs.

“The only way this can work is if you have enough clinicians,” Evans said. “We know we don’t have enough clinicians.”

Evans said that technology can help meet people who may not have access to mental health services, but those new digital tools need to be developed properly.

“It’s really important to use psychological science to help undergird many of these new technologies. We know that if you look at some of the chat bots that are out there, you look at a lot of the technologies, they're based on things that are not based on good science,” he said.

Evans said that technology can enable behavioral health to go beyond the black box, and move toward a population health approach.

“We can look at other ways of helping people,” he said.

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With digital tools, behavioral health providers can look at ways of engaging the 75% of the population that don’t have a mental health diagnosis.

“Many of the people who don't have a condition today will have a condition tomorrow, but because we ignore them until they have a diagnosis, we miss the opportunity for prevention,” Evans said.

By focusing on different ways of engaging the population, including the use of technology, Evans said, “What we would do is really encourage them and give them the tools so they can stay healthy. We take that kind of approach with behavioral health, and we can vastly improve the outcomes.”

Evans said he’s enthusiastic about digital tools providing the capacity to reach larger groups.

“One of the great things about technologies is that they can be scaled. And if we can scale them, it allows us to reach literally hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands of people simultaneously,” Evans said.

Evans also sought to dispel the idea that people aren’t willing to come forward and get assistance, if they have easier access to behavioral health.

He pointed to his work as commissioner of behavioral health for the city of Philadelphia when his office would set up tables in parks or libraries to engage those who wanted help. Those outreach efforts were dubbed “check-ups from the neck up.”

“People said no one will come up to a table in a public place and talk to you about their mental health,” Evans said. “It turns out that people will, and actually they want to do that. And in fact, every time we did this, there was at least one person who was suicidal.”

“But what does that say to us about the black box model of waiting for people? It means that if we're waiting for people to come to us, we know, as someone said, most people aren't coming to us. But if we actually go to where people are and normalize mental health, it would actually go a long way in helping people to reach out to us, get the help that they want,” he said.