Episode 62: Access to Psychedelic Care in Indigenous Communities w/ Dr. Leah Mayo

Um, so I wanna talk a little bit about the network first, and then get more into the clinical trials.

So you, um, created a network, um, LIVE Path it's called.

Mm-hmm.

And we'll share the link in the show notes later.

And it's, I believe it's focusing on providing knowledge to help individuals and communities who wanna start conversations about access to psychedelics in their communities.

So can you share about, more about the, the context for this and the need, um, you know, where that came from specifically and how that came to you and, um, you know, what, what you, you've created to address the needs?

Yeah.

So our network is called LIVE Path, so that stands for Lifting Indigenous Voices and Experiences in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Healing.

So long title, which is why we go with the acronym.

Um, and it's co-led by, uh, Rita Henderson here, so we, we've received CHR funding to support this network.

Um, and it was very, I would say, kind of organically developed because shortly after I took, um, my position here, again, because it was this research chair in psychedelics, the university kind of, you know, made a big deal about it because it was such a unique position.

And because of that, I would have people reach out occasionally.

Um, and I had individuals from indigenous communities reach out and really were, they, they were looking for information about psychedelics.

So these are, these were people who from, um, indigenous communities that don't have a history, like a cultural practice with psychedelics, but have heard about, you know, the clinical trials and all the things going on, and were interested in kind of understanding if that's something that could be part of their community or how to have these conversations with people.

Um, so you know, there are, there are aspects that I know about clinical trials, but there's a lot that I don't know.

Um, and I think, you know, one of the, the fun things about working in a network like this is to be very open about, "I know, like, you know so little." Like as academics, we spend so much time trying to convince people that we know so much, but I think it, it's, it's fun and humbling to just say that there's so much out there, and I only have this one pocket of information.

However, you know, with this network, you know, Rita would put me in touch with someone else who would put us in touch with someone else, you know, so that we could provide information, specific information about, you know, healthcare infrastructure or about in, uh, specific communities.

Um, and you know, the network includes people who, uh, work in indigenous health, um, or people who are representatives of their community, people who have experience with psychedelics, either through a cultural practice or a, a clinical experience.

Um, and really it's just about how can we make sure that people have access to information.

If they want to have these conversations in their community, they can go to a space where there's, you know, vetted information.

We have nice handouts and user-friendly things that can help start conversations.

Um, and then with other communities who want to go a bit further, you know, we talk about, you know, is this something that you're interested in, is there a way we can support maybe kind of piloting out what a model of care could look like in your community? Um, so you know, it's, the network itself is still fairly early on.

I think we just received funding about a year ago, so we're still building and growing and kind of shaping what it's gonna be.

I think and as more people join in and we gain more information, I think that's something that, you know, allows us to provide more, uh, knowledge to people.

Um, and it just also kind of centers, you know, as we move towards maybe regulation of psychedelics into mainstream, we wanna make sure that indigenous individuals and communities are empowered with the information they need and that their f- they, their needs are represented, uh, in the conversations moving forward.