Downstate Advances Safe, Accessible AI in Mental Health Care
By Office of the President | Oct 20, 2026
Downstate’s faculty and staff are helping to develop and evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) tools that expand access to mental health care while protecting quality and safety. That work was featured at the Global Center for AI in Mental Health’s fourth annual summit, held at the SUNY Global Center. “Scaling Care, Not Inequality—Building What’s Missing in AI for Mental Health,” brought together clinicians, researchers, technology experts, policymakers, and humanitarian leaders to examine how AI can support care with human oversight.
The Center is a collaboration among Downstate, the University at Albany (UAlbany), and the Health Innovation Exchange (HiEx). Salvador Durá-Bernal, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, serves as its Downstate director, working alongside Amy Nitza, Ph.D., at UAlbany.
Speakers included representatives from UNICEF, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, Google DeepMind, and the New York State Office of Mental Health and Office of Victim Services. Discussions explored AI’s role in humanitarian crises, support for victims of terrorism, and psychotherapy, with attention to children and communities with limited resources.
Across these conversations, the message was consistent: expanding access requires tools grounded in evidence, clinical practice, and an understanding of patients’ language, culture, and circumstances.
The Center presented progress on Ther-Assist, designed to help therapists evaluate their work and receive guidance based on established treatment approaches, and JulienPFA, which supports responders delivering psychological first aid after disasters and mass violence.
The team also introduced a benchmark for evaluating AI tools in mental health, assessing clinical quality, safety in high-risk situations, and fairness across different populations. The Center is testing the benchmark on its own tools first and plans to make it openly available.
For Downstate, this work connects directly to caring for Brooklyn’s diverse communities. Our experience working with patients facing financial, language, and other barriers can help guide the development of tools that address their needs.
The Center is building on the summit’s connections to identify collaborators and implementation partners and refine its tools for different communities and care settings.
Congratulations to Drs. Durá-Bernal, Nitza and the Global Center team on advancing this work and bringing Downstate’s perspective to global conversations shaping AI in mental health care.
Explore the summit overview, photos, and session recordings
Tags: AI