Mental Health Treatment Centers: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend mental health treatment centers. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Increase: Acadia Healthcare
08Largest Decline: Skyland Trail
09Category Leader: McLean Hospital
10Recommendation Placement Snapshot
11Buyer-Intent Distribution
12Historical Measurement Record

Benchmark Summary

McLean Hospital led the Mental Health Treatment Centers benchmark in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 39.3%, down from 49.7% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Skyland Trail at 20.8%, was 18.5 percentage points in September 2026.

Skyland Trail recorded the largest coverage decline since baseline, falling from 41.1% in July 2026 to 20.8% in September 2026. Rogers Behavioral Health declined from 23.4% in July 2026 to 9.5% in September 2026, and Lindner Center of HOPE fell from 24.0% in July 2026 to 7.6% in September 2026. No tracked brand posted a significant coverage increase in September 2026.

Six brands declined beyond normal month-to-month variation over the full baseline-to-current window. The category leader itself, McLean Hospital, moved down in each of the two months since July 2026, from 49.7% to 45.3% in August 2026 and then to 39.3% in September 2026. The benchmark began with 600 prompt-surface observations in September 2026 and produced 211 qualified observations after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

McLean Hospital39.3%
Skyland Trail20.8%
The Menninger Clinic18.0%
Silver Hill Hospital16.1%
Sierra Tucson11.8%
Rogers Behavioral Health9.5%
Lindner Center of HOPE7.6%
Acadia Healthcare1.4%
Discovery Mood & Anxiety0.9%
Newport Healthcare0.9%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	175	211	Up 36
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	52.0%	38.9%	Down 13.1 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	69.1%	51.7%	Down 17.4 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	McLean Hospital (49.7%)	McLean Hospital (39.3%)	No change

Qualified surface breadth counts the six canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The intermediate month, August 2026, stood at 203 qualified observations with breadth of 6.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Mental Health Treatment Centers

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	262	600	Total prompts captured across AI/search surfaces
Unique questions	218	381	Distinct questions after de-duplication
Brand / competitor mentions	262	600	Prompts mentioning at least one tracked brand
Relevant observations	208	460	On-topic observations retained for review
Irrelevant observations	54	140	Off-topic observations excluded
Qualified benchmark observations	175	211	Public denominator after all qualification

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Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See AI Market Discovery Methodology for the full qualification process.

Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
McLean Hospital	61.1%	39.3%	31.8%	21.3%	0.79
Skyland Trail	25.1%	20.8%	13.3%	3.3%	0.85
The Menninger Clinic	23.2%	18.0%	10.9%	1.9%	0.88
Silver Hill Hospital	17.5%	16.1%	10.9%	0.9%	0.95
Sierra Tucson	14.2%	11.8%	5.2%	1.4%	0.90
Rogers Behavioral Health	14.2%	9.5%	7.1%	1.4%	0.73
Lindner Center of HOPE	11.8%	7.6%	5.7%	0.9%	0.68
Acadia Healthcare	10.9%	1.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.35
Discovery Mood & Anxiety	2.4%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.60
Newport Healthcare	2.4%	0.9%	0.5%	0.5%	0.60

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned in any capacity
Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist
Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is ranked in the top three positions
Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation
Net sentiment: balance of positive over negative mentions among observations where the brand appears

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
Acadia Healthcare	0.6%	1.4%	Up 0.8 points
Discovery Mood & Anxiety	0.0%	0.9%	Up 0.9 points
Lindner Center of HOPE	24.0%	7.6%	Down 16.4 points
McLean Hospital	49.7%	39.3%	Down 10.4 points
Newport Healthcare	1.1%	0.9%	Down 0.2 points
Rogers Behavioral Health	23.4%	9.5%	Down 13.9 points
Sierra Tucson	24.6%	11.8%	Down 12.8 points
Silver Hill Hospital	25.7%	16.1%	Down 9.6 points
Skyland Trail	41.1%	20.8%	Down 20.3 points
The Menninger Clinic	22.9%	18.0%	Down 4.9 points

Acadia Healthcare gained ground from August 2026 to September 2026, moving from 1.0% to 1.4% valid recommendation coverage, while Sierra Tucson edged up from 11.3% to 11.8% over the same period. Neither move exceeded normal month-to-month variation. Rogers Behavioral Health, by contrast, posted a significant decline over the same one-month window, falling from 16.8% to 9.5% and extending a two-month decline from its 23.4% July baseline.

Largest Increase: Acadia Healthcare

Acadia Healthcare rose from 0.6% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 1.4% in September 2026, a move of 0.8 percentage points that remained within normal variation. Presence rate for Acadia Healthcare moved from 4.0% in July 2026 to 10.9% in September 2026.

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Largest Decline: Skyland Trail

Skyland Trail fell from 41.1% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 20.8% in September 2026, a drop of 20.3 percentage points that moved beyond normal variation. Coverage declined in each of the two months since baseline, from 41.1% to 27.1% in August 2026 and then to 20.8% in September 2026. Presence rate fell from 47.4% to 25.1%, and top-three rate declined from 33.7% to 13.3% over the same window.

Category Leader: McLean Hospital

McLean Hospital remained the category leader in September 2026 at 39.3% valid recommendation coverage, down from 49.7% in July 2026. The move was beyond normal variation over the full period. McLean Hospital also led on presence rate at 61.1% and rank-one rate at 21.3% in September 2026.

Six brands in total registered declines beyond normal variation from July 2026 to September 2026: Lindner Center of HOPE, McLean Hospital, Rogers Behavioral Health, Sierra Tucson, Silver Hill Hospital, and Skyland Trail. The Menninger Clinic, Acadia Healthcare, Discovery Mood & Anxiety, and Newport Healthcare moved within normal month-to-month variation over the same window.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Placement data shows how prominently brands appear when recommended. McLean Hospital led on top-three placement at 31.8% in September 2026, with Skyland Trail at 13.3% and Silver Hill Hospital at 10.9%. The Menninger Clinic also reached a 10.9% top-three rate in September 2026.

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
McLean Hospital	31.8%	21.3%	45.7%	29.1%
Skyland Trail	13.3%	3.3%	33.7%	9.1%
Silver Hill Hospital	10.9%	0.9%	18.3%	3.4%

Silver Hill Hospital and The Menninger Clinic held identical top-three rates of 10.9%, yet first-position rates differed, with The Menninger Clinic at 1.9% and Silver Hill Hospital at 0.9%, which shows that equivalent top-three placement can still produce different first-position outcomes.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	175	211
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	175	211

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations for pricing or multi-brand comparison queries. August 2026 also recorded 203 qualified observations, all in the Brand Recommendation class.

Historical Measurement Record

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	175	McLean Hospital	49.7%	Skyland Trail at 41.1%
Aug 2026	203	McLean Hospital	45.3%	Skyland Trail down 14.0 points
Sep 2026	211	McLean Hospital	39.3%	Skyland Trail down 20.3 points

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI-powered search and assistant surfaces discover, mention, and recommend brands and organizations in response to real user queries. The Mental Health Treatment Centers benchmark covers ten tracked brands across ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

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