Inaugural Study Will Produce One Of The First Psychiatric Specialist-Validated Benchmarks For Evaluating Clinical Risk In AI Responses To Real-World Mental Health Conversations.

NEW YORK, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Grow Therapy (Grow) today announced a research partnership with Stanford University focused on developing rigorous, evidence-based standards for the safe use of artificial intelligence (AI) in mental health care. The partnership is led by Principal Investigator Jonathan Chen, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford, in collaboration with Stanford Psychiatry.

The inaugural study will measure the responses of leading AI models to mental health crises and evaluate which design choices most effectively reduce harm as well as handle these situations appropriately. Stanford will work from de-identified clinical cases involving client safety concerns, drawn from conversations routed for human review by screening systems of Grow's AI coach, a conversational tool its clients use between sessions with their therapists.

Researchers, including a panel of psychiatrists, will then:

1. Evaluate how often leading AI models give harmful responses to these sensitive scenarios;
2. Test whether layering models with a dedicated safety reviewer reduces that harm; and,
3. Evaluate other safety mechanisms designed to elicit, from the mental health specialists' point-of-view, more responsible responses.

This independent validation will give the field of large language models (LLMs) a shared framework for assessing what responses should be in the context of mental health conversations.

"People now regularly talk with LLMs, seeking therapy, advice, and counseling in both official and unofficial ways. To have an agreed upon definition of acceptable AI model behavior while mitigating predictable harm, we need studies like this to identify and measure failure modes. This will continue to push the field to hold high standards when patient care is involved," said Jonathan Chen, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford and Principal Investigator.

Why Grow

Grow's AI coach was built by mental health professionals specifically for supporting clients between their therapy sessions, with multiple safety layers embedded from the outset. Each conversation is automatically scored for clinical quality, tone, and risk, and flagged interactions are reviewed by licensed clinicians. Grow's approach is informed by an external AI advisory panel of independent experts spanning clinical psychology, clinical AI research, ethics, and mental health epidemiology.

"It is essential that the mental health field develop evidence-based benchmarks for safe AI responses," said Manoj Kanagaraj, MD, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Grow Therapy. "We believe the strongest model keeps a licensed therapist in the loop, as ours does, but we recognize that some people may turn to general-purpose LLMs for mental health support. Partnering with Dr. Chen and his team at Stanford will establish clear standards, leveraging Grow's real-world experience, to create a shared yardstick for AI safety in mental health. Our hope is that this work results in fewer harms reaching the people who turn to LLMs of any kind for mental health aid, especially general-purpose ones not designed for it."

While much of the field relies on synthetic testing, Grow contributes the real-world scenarios that make a credible clinical benchmark possible.

"Much of the current testing of AI safety relies on hypothetical examples," said Ethan Goh, Executive Director of Stanford-Harvard ARISE. "This study gives us a chance to evaluate scenarios that are closer to what clinicians actually worry about in practice, especially in situations where the wrong response could cause harm."

About Grow

Grow is a mental health platform that delivers exceptional in-person and online therapy and psychiatric care. Its rigorously vetted national network of 26,000 mental health professionals provides high-quality care covered by insurance, with 220 million Americans able to access Grow through their health plan. Grow Therapy has raised $328 million, and key investors include Sequoia Capital, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Transformation Capital, TCV, SignalFire, Plus Capital, BCI and Menlo Ventures. More information about Grow Therapy can be found at growtherapy.com.

Media Contact
Kristina McPherson, kristina@growtherapy.com

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SOURCE Grow Therapy