BIPOC Trainee Mentorship Fund
Veterans Peer Support Film Project
Psychedelic Equity & Access
Building the Next Generation of Diverse Psychedelic Facilitators: SoundMind BIPOC Mentorship Fund
Making psychedelics accessible is about more than providing affordable care. It’s imperative that we help foster the next generation of diverse psychedelics providers, helping them to bring psychedelic medicine to their communities and become leaders in the field through research, education, and advocacy. Through our BIPOC Mentorship Fund, SoundMind has provided over $80,000 in scholarships to fund the training of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) providers in psychedelic medicine, as part of our broader mentorship fund, which has provided over $100,000 in scholarships.
Veteran Peer Support in Psychedelics Film Project
There is an urgent need for effective, accessible mental health interventions for veterans, and psychedelic-assisted therapies offer hope for more effective interventions to treat PTSD, depression, and other mental health concerns. Not only do 1 in 5 veterans suffer from PTSD, a third report they don’t get the mental health care they need. At SoundMind, we prioritize developing psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment models that make these innovative new treatments affordable, accessible, and culturally-attuned to patients, especially those who hold marginalized identities. We believe peer support is a vital way to achieve these goals by incorporating trained peer support mentors into a patient’s treatment team, alongside prescribers and licensed therapists.
Developing these new treatments is not enough, however, it is vital that we disseminate information on psychedelic therapy to educate the public and advocate for increased access and affordability across patient populations. It is critical that we tell the stories of the many individuals whose lives are changed by psychedelic medicine—especially our nation’s veterans. Toward this end, SoundMind Project is proud to launch our Veteran Peer Support in Psychedelics film project, which will follow the treatment of a veteran at our clinic and the peer support mentors who are part of his care team. This film project will document the power of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of depression and PTSD, as well as the training process that each of our peer mentors goes through to join our care teams.
To support this project donate here
SoundMind Peer Support Models in Psychedelic Care
At SoundMind, we prioritize developing psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment models that make these innovative new treatments affordable, accessible, and culturally-attuned to patients, especially those who hold marginalized identities. We believe peer support is a vital way to achieve these goals by incorporating trained peer support mentors into a patient’s treatment team, alongside prescribers and licensed therapists. Peer support mentors are individuals who have completed treatment with psychedelic-assisted therapy who then train to support other patients who have key shared experiences. For example, in our veteran peer support project, all peer support mentors have experienced PTSD related to military or law enforcement service. SoundMind Project helps to sponsor care for patients and training for peer support mentors as part of this effort.
Benefits of the SoundMind Peer Support Model:
- Provides patients with additional emotional and social support from an individual who understand their history and experiences on a personal level
- Builds community and social connectedness among patients and peer support mentors
- Reduces costs of care, increasing equitable access
- Gives peer support mentors the gift of contributing to the healing of others, which has been shown to enhance their own well-being and recovery
This Veteran Peer Support project is part of SoundMind’s broader Psychedelic Access for Veterans Initiative