Improving Accessibility to Psychedelic Treatments — What Can We Do to Make This a Reality?
Despite promising evidence for psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) in treating mental health conditions, its accessibility remains severely limited. Current delivery models are constrained by high costs, siloed clinics, and inefficiencies that limit scalability. This talk will outline the evolution of psychedelic therapy to date, its current limitations, and present a possible solution that is currently being explored in a clinical trial at Monash University.
We take a closer look at one key barrier: cost. Delivering PAT in specialist clinics with intensive therapist time results in a prohibitive cost structure, often overlooked in discussions about feasibility. Through financial analysis, we will highlight why addressing this structural inefficiency is critical for making PAT accessible.
We propose an alternative: a decentralised, “Fly-In-Fly-Out” (FIFO) model of care that integrates PAT into the patient’s existing therapeutic relationships rather than siloed clinics. The FIFO model aims to halve costs—without compromising quality—by decentralising delivery, optimising resources, and augmenting therapy with technology tools that reduce therapist hours while supporting therapeutic depth.
We will also present FIFO-PAT-201, an upcoming clinical trial in partnership with Monash University and Psychology Care, designed to evaluate this innovative model for Major Depressive Disorder. This trial tests whether delivering psilocybin-assisted therapy within a patient’s usual care framework—with adjunctive VR support—is clinically effective, safe, scalable, and more affordable than traditional models.
By rethinking delivery models, we aim to make psychedelic treatments more accessible, sustainable, and aligned with ongoing therapeutic relationships—moving beyond promise toward reality.
