Redefining Who Can Deliver Mental Health Interventions: Introduction to the Special Issue on Nontraditional Mental Health Providers to Address Growing Mental Health Needs.

The global demand for mental health services has surged in recent years, yet the supply of trained specialists remains insufficient to meet population needs. This imbalance has prompted an urgent call to reconsider who can deliver effective mental health interventions. This special issue, Leveraging Nontraditional Mental Health Providers to Address Growing Mental Health Needs, brings together 17 contributions that examine the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of nontraditional providers-peers, teachers, primary care providers, nurses, community health workers, and other lay providers-in diverse settings and populations. Collectively, these studies highlight how nontraditional providers can deliver both treatment and prevention interventions across schools, healthcare systems, community organizations, and virtual platforms. The findings demonstrate the promise of expanding the mental health workforce beyond traditionally credentialed specialists, while also identifying critical factors related to training, supervision, cost-effectiveness, and implementation. Importantly, the contributions illustrate that these providers are already filling essential gaps in access, particularly for children, underserved communities, older adults, and other priority populations. Taken together, the special issue underscores that the central challenge is no longer whether nontraditional providers can effectively deliver mental health interventions, but how to scale, sustain, and integrate these models into broader systems of care.