Reflections by Emily Wheeler, Director of Research Partnerships & Development, MQ Mental Health Research
This year’s REAL Mental Health Summit was a masterclass in what it means to challenge the status quo, bringing together a group of people passionate about mental health but that don’t often get to be in the same room.
It was all about catalysing meaningful investment and building cross-sector collaboration that puts people and evidence at the centre of mental health innovation. It was an exciting opportunity to speak on a panel at the end of the two days on making mental health investable and to see our very own MQ Ambassador, Austin Okolo, close the whole summit with his keynote speech on voices of the future.
As charity partner to the Summit, MQ was proud to see such a wide range of stakeholders — from institutional investors and family offices to frontline clinicians and founders, many openly sharing their own lived experience of the challenges of mental illness — come together to ask: how do we make mental health truly investable? And even more importantly, how do we ensure those investments translate into real-world impact?
Why money matters — and where it should go?
A key theme across the event was the growing need for smarter funding models. Great ideas get stuck — they don’t have a clear path to grow into services that help people on a large scale.
That’s where things like blended finance and catalytic capital come in. These are approaches that mix different kinds of funding (like grants and investment) to share risk and support long-term progress.
The call was clear: mental health is where climate was a decade ago. Now’s the time to create infrastructure, shared frameworks, and collaborative capital (philanthropic and investment) that can catch up.
From treating symptoms to supporting whole people
Speakers talked about exciting tools like digital health apps, psychedelics, and AI, but the real focus was on people — and how to support their wellbeing, not just reduce symptoms. Key takeaways included:
- Prevention and early support save money and lives — we need to act early, not wait until crisis.
- Digital tools can be helpful if they’re created with the people who will use them, and if they avoid isolating people further.
- Success shouldn’t just be measured by fewer symptoms — we need to ask: how is this person living? Are they back at work? Are they feeling hopeful?
The Future: bold ideas, big questions
Sessions on psychedelic therapy and AI in mental health care made it clear: the future is coming fast, and it’s full of promise. But it also raises tough questions:
- How do we make sure these treatments are safe, well-tested, and available to everyone, and as quickly as possible — not just those who can afford them?
- How can we use AI to make care more personalised, effective, and accessible, without replacing the human connection that so many people need?
What needs to change next?
Whilst it is energising and exciting to get so many varied minds in the room together, we need to go beyond talk and see tangible outputs. Though this isn’t an exhaustive list of course, some of the clear next steps we need to take away from the two-day summit are:
- Join the dots: lots of great projects are happening — but they’re not always connected. We need better collaboration between different types of funders, researchers, services, and communities.
- Make sure systems are ready: health and care systems often aren’t set up to adopt new ideas — we need to change that, especially for communities with fewer resources.
- Put people with lived experience at the centre: the people who have been through the system know what needs fixing — they must be part of the design.
At MQ, we remain committed to translating cutting-edge research into real-world impact. It was an honour to contribute to the conversation and see so many others working to do the same. The REAL Summit reminded us that this work is not just possible — it’s already happening. Now we need to work together to take it further.
If you’d like to learn more about how MQ supports research and partnerships that move the needle in mental health, we’d love to talk.
The post REAL Mental Health Summit 2025: Investing in a Future Where Everyone Can Thrive first appeared on MQ Mental Health Research.
