We Need Whole-Person Health, Not Whole Lots of Barriers
By Alice Bond and Kristen Sheppard
Healthcare is on the verge: becoming more expensive and less accessible, while public health is getting worse. Over the past two decades, depression rates have risen alongside substance abuse disorder, anxiety, loneliness, and suicide. Covid-19 accelerated that decline in wellness dramatically. The resulting combination of exponential demand and lack of political will has created enormous pressure for better policy from clinicians, researchers, advocacy organizations, states, and the public.
Why talk about this now? Because mental health is increasing its prominence in the public mind. According to an American Psychiatric Association's Healthy Minds Poll conducted December 2025 and published in 2026, more than 1 in 3 Americans (38%) planned to make a mental health-related New Year's resolution — up 5% from the previous year. And Rula, a national behavioral healthcare company, found in their 2026 State of Mental Health Report that “60% of adults report that mental health has become more important to them.’”
Still, Americans do not register the wider impact of mental illness on physical health. A 2026 National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI)-Ipsos Workplace Poll found that while knowledge of mental illness is growing, grasping the connection with physical illness is another story. "People see mental health as relevant and appropriate to talk about at work, and that's encouraging. But real barriers persist in the form of stigma and fear of retaliation or lost opportunities," said Megan Delp, NAMI's director of workplace mental health.
End the stigma, embrace the mind
Medical research and leading clinical evidence agree: mental health is bound inextricably to physical health. The 2026 World Health Organization (WHO) social messaging reinforces its longstanding position: "There is no health without mental health."
That connection is fundamental to the healthcare system itself. A whole-person approach marks a growing shift in medicine and public policy, edging out the long-accepted notion of a clear separation between mind and body. In January 2026, New Jersey Acting Health Commissioner Jeff Brown captured that shift when announcing integrated outpatient facilities combining primary care, mental health, and addiction treatment: "Healthcare works best when patients are treated as a whole person, not a collection of separate problems."
As healthcare nears a perfect storm, it also reveals an opportunity. Whole-person healthcare can reduce burdensome paperwork, high costs, and lack of accessibility by combining physical and mental health into one approach. Project 2029 notes that whole-person health has the potential to transform "our healthcare system from a system oriented toward high-cost and reactive treatment to one that emphasizes prevention, early intervention, and long-term wellbeing."
Project 2029 is an organization of citizens committed to building "a plan of action for a future that is strong, kind, and prosperous." Our paper, released March 2026, proposes health policies designed for immediate implementation on "Day One" of a 2029 Presidential administration — including "a policy foundation for eliminating any artificial distinction between physical and mental health coverage by requiring parity."
For full information, see https://www.project2029.me/health-well-being.
