A Shift in Sentiment: From Stigma to Support
Healing Breakthrough's work in the field begins to show promising results
Welcome to the First Edition of The News from Healing Breakthrough!
We look forward to sharing important updates about our 501(c)(3) program and the most relevant news from the field here on our new Substack newsletter! We invite you to subscribe if you’d like to receive future issues (on a monthly or quarterly basis), and you can also unsubscribe at any time.
Our mission at Healing Breakthrough is to transform treatment of Veteran PTSD using MDMA-Assisted Therapy (MDMA-AT). So, you can expect news about our strategic vision, the clinical research we are funding, our advocacy team’s progress enlisting funding support from Congress Members in D.C., and our rollout program, where we are developing education and training-related content and initiatives to support widespread adoption of MDMA-AT at the VA. We will also let you know about upcoming events, HB in the press, and fundraising.
Highlights in this issue:
A shift in political sentiment in Washington D.C.
The VA steps up public interest and support
The American Legion follows suit
ISTSS adds psychedelics to its conference agenda
Axios and Politico report on positive shift in sentiment
Earlier this week, Axios published a well-researched article featuring HB Executive Director, Jason Pyle, and Director of Veteran Advocacy, Juliana Mercer. This follows a fairly balanced article published by Politico in August, which highlighted the positive shift towards bipartisan support for psychedelics as a potential “cure to America’s mental health crisis”.
"PTSD is a lethal disease," Pyle told Axios. "So to think that we would leave it untreated — it's really inconceivable." Mercer, who served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted she's worked with Veterans for almost two decades.
"Nothing helped ... until MDMA entered the scene. It's the bright light at the end of the tunnel," said Mercer.
The VA steps up public interest and support
The VA hosted a State of the Art (SOTA) Conference on Psychedelic Treatments for Mental Health Conditions in late September, a historic event some referred to as “constructive”, “exciting”, and “inspiring”. Dr. Carolyn Clancy, VA’s Assistant Undersecretary for Health for Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks, said:
“The first objective [of this SOTA] was to better understand the current state of scientific evidence and to identify a strategic framework to consider future psychedelic treatment research for select mental health conditions. The second objective was to determine the necessary next steps for potential VA system-wide clinical implementation for psychedelic compounds for potential future use.”
When asked about overall sentiment, one participant noted afterwards, “This tidal wave is coming. The only question now is how and what comes next.”
VA launches podcast and Episode 1 is on psychedelics
We have been encouraged to see the VA publicly demonstrate a commitment to learn more about this new class of treatments. In October, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, VA Under Secretary for Health, led a candid discussion on psychedelic-assisted therapies for Veterans experiencing a number of mental health conditions in Episode 1 of the leadership podcast series, New Horizons in Health.
Dr. Shereef Elnahal (left), Army Veteran and MDMA-AT Advocate, Jonathan Lubecky (center), and Deputy Executive Director of VHA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Ilse Wiechers (right), on Episode 1 of VA’s New Horizons on Health podcast
Next week (Tuesday, November 14 at 2:00pm ET), the House Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Health is scheduled to convene a formal hearing (titled “Emerging Therapies: Breakthroughs in the Battle Against Suicide?”) primarily to discuss how substances such as psilocybin and MDMA could help address the Veteran suicide epidemic. This will be the first Congressional hearing on the use of psychedelic-assisted treatments for mental health disorders. Two panels of experts are scheduled to testify, including Healing Breakthrough’s own Director of Veteran Advocacy, Juliana Mercer.
The American Legion follows with supportive stance
The American Legion (TAL), the nation’s largest Veterans Service Organization, announced its public support for “funding continued research of emerging therapies for Veteran health including, but not limited to MDMA” in an official resolution (dated October 2023). TAL supports 2.3 million+ members and is highly influential in the Veteran community, as well as with lawmakers in Washington D.C.
This news represents an important win for Healing Breakthrough’s advocacy team, as well as for some of our key allies and partners. It also comes much sooner than expected following the launch of a concerted grassroots effort in the Legion’s Montana chapter earlier this year. Juliana Mercer spoke at the national convention in August, where she had the opportunity to share about HB’s work at the Be the One Symposium to support the Legion’s new suicide prevention initiative.
Juliana Mercer onstage at The American Legion’s ‘Be the One’ Symposium.
These are just some of the positive signs that the public stigma associated with this class of novel treatments may be slowly dissipating, particularly within the context of healing Veterans. Still, there is plenty of hard work ahead to facilitate increased awareness and education.
Other recent events
HB’s Executive Director, Jason Pyle, enjoyed supporting longtime friend and partner in the space, Heroic Hearts Project, at a fundraising event held in Menlo Park, CA in early November.
Healing Breakthrough’s Jason Pyle emceeing at the Heroic Hearts Project dinner.
ISTSS adds psychedelics to 2023 conference agenda for the first time
HB’s Director of Research, Ken Weingardt, and HB’s Program Manager for Research, Maciej Gonek, attended International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Annual Meeting, in November in Los Angeles. It’s worth noting that in 2022, psychedelics was not a part of the ISTSS agenda. However, this year, psychedelic-assisted therapy featured in four different conference panels and discussions, as well as in a poster presented by Ken Weingardt with co-authors from the VA’s NCPTSD, Drs. Paula Schnurr and Leslie Morland. To read Healing Breakthrough’s notes from ISTSS 2023, click here.
San Diego VA’s Leslie Morland presenting at ISTSS.
Leslie Morland, clinical psychologist and senior researcher at VA’s National Center of PTSD (San Diego VA), presented a talk on her MDMA-Assisted Couples Behavioral Conjoint Therapy (CBCT) study, which was funded by Healing Breakthrough. The pilot started treating its first patients in mid-October.
Healing Breakthrough’s Ken Weingardt and San Diego VA’s Leslie Morland at ISTSS.
For your radar
Healing Breakthrough recently published its first video on YouTube! It features our advocacy team hard at work in D.C. and includes conversations with Congress Members Rep. Nancy Mace (South Carolina) and Lt. General Jack Bergman (U.S. Congress, Michigan). Both have shown incredible leadership and support for Healing Breakthrough’s goal of directing government funding into research of breakthrough therapies like MDMA-AT at the VA. Bergman is Co-Chair of PATH Caucus (Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies) which sponsored the landmark Bergman-Correa Amendment passed by unanimous voice vote in July 2023.
Soledad O’Brien’s Matter of Fact show released the first several episodes of an interesting TV series on psychedelics, starting with one on MDMA-AT (featuring HB’s Juliana Mercer), followed by episodes on psilocybin and ibogaine.
Behind the scenes with Juliana Mercer while filming Soledad O’Brien’s Matter of Fact show on MDMA-AT in San Diego.
Juliana Mercer appeared on NBC Live from Rockefeller Center, NYC, to talk about our mission for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September.
Honoring Veterans Day
As we approach Veterans Day this weekend, we are humbled and grateful for the opportunity to honor those who served our country. We hope you will take a moment to recognize their courageous sacrifice, too.
That’s it for the first edition of The News from Healing Breakthrough! Thank you for being here. We hope you will keep following along with us in this journey to bring healing to millions, starting with hundreds of thousands of Veterans through the VA.