Twelve years ago while directing the National Institute for Mental Health in Washington, D.C., Dr. Tom Insel spoke to mental health advocates about real-time brain activity, sharing material focused on revolutionizing understanding of the human brain.
At the end of the talk, someone said, “Man, you just don’t get it."
Insel didn't understand what the audience member meant.
“Our house is on fire, and you’re talking about the chemistry of the paint,” the audience member responded.
The person said they had a 24-year-old son diagnosed with schizophrenia who was hospitalized four times, incarcerated three times, made two suicide attempts and was currently homeless.
“And I thought, in that moment I was of course a little defensive, but I thought about what he said for a long time after, and I realized … he’s right,” said Insel at the MSU Mental Health Research Connect panel on Wednesday. “Why is it with so much progress in science … we’ve made so little progress in clinical psychiatry, and why do we find ourselves essentially in a mental health crisis?”
In his most recent work, Insel focuses on what it takes to support meaningful recovery for people with mental illnesses, including what he deems “simple solutions”: people, place and purpose in his book “Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health.”
“Mental health research has enormous value, but only when we’re asking the right questions,” assistant professor of psychology Katy Thakkar said. “Every person in this room requires the knowledge and lived experience as well as the people who are implementing the research.”
Thakkar said the goal of MSU Mental Health Research Connect is to forge and strengthen relationships between academic researchers and community members, improve mental health and support the people most directly impacted by it to “increase the relevance of research, the impact of it and the reach.”
In 2026, the behavioral health crisis is comprised of youth mental health, serious mental illness and substance use disorder. The crises are different, with the youth mental health crisis being new and global, Insel said. The youth mental health crisis is composed mostly of young women, with a 52% increase in suicide and LGBTQ+ members being 5.5 times more likely to attempt suicide, with non-binary people being affected the most.
