INNOVATIVE THERAPIES CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE ACT AIMS TO PROVIDE VETS ACCESS TO CUTTING-EDGE TREATMENT OPTIONS
When Veterans face hardships for their mental and physical health, the care they receive right now may continue to improve, but it’s still limited from all of the options that could be made available. Vets and lawmakers aim to change this with the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act. Receiving bipartisan support and backing from key Veteran groups, if the bill passes, psychedelic therapies would be on the table to help warfighters heal.
The Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act Looks to Expand Therapy for Vets
Veterans across the United States would receive better healthcare under the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act, which would create VA centers for psychedelic therapies to provide Vets with more options.
Veterans seeking care for mental and physical health conditions would have access to innovative therapy centers of excellence through the VA.
Air Force Veteran Amy Rising dealt with negative mental and physical impacts from her service helping fighter jets in Iraq and Afghanistan from Scott AFB in Illinois.
Unfortunately, to help deal with these ailments, Rising ended up using Vicodin and Percocets, which impacted her family as a result.
“I couldn’t take care of my kid; I was way too loopy. It was like, do I want to take this medicine to help me feel better because I’m in bed all day? I’m like, dying and coming back from organ failure or do I want to look after my 3 year old?” said Rising.
So, she swapped the prescriptions for cannabis and also started a new line of work that helps create healthcare policies for Veterans.
Rising was part of the effort to pass medical cannabis legislation in New York and is now looking to help Veterans have the option of psychedelic therapy through the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act.
Establishing Centers of Excellence While Expanding Mental Healthcare
Creating new centers of excellence isn’t exactly an unprecedented idea, as the VA already has them for a number of healthcare topics—both for mental and physical needs.
The bill would require the VA to establish at least five innovative therapy centers of excellence nationwide, providing formal research support and dedicated funding.
Furthermore, these centers would partner with universities and receive guidance from expert panels.
As Rising mentioned, “It’s a centralized more efficient system, instead of just everybody in their little silos and then having to aggregate these reports.”
Not only have there been similar centers with different focuses, but the expansion of psychedelic therapies for Vets has been in the works for quite some time.
Advocates continue to push to make access a reality, and in December 2024, the VA began its first psychedelic therapy study since the 1960s involving MDMA for PTSD and substance use disorders in Veterans.
In a press release, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) said, “We’ve spent years pushing the VA to explore breakthrough treatments like psychedelic-assisted therapies because too many of our men and women in uniform return home different than how they left. Now that the VA has heeded our call to make funding available to study these treatments, it’s past time they build dedicated centers to study the therapeutic uses of psychedelic substances that our Veterans have been asking for. Veterans deserve real solutions, not more of the same.”
Advocates are pushing for real change in Veteran suicide prevention, pointing out that despite billions spent, suicide rates have held steady, averaging over 6,000 deaths a year since 2001.
Rather than sticking with the pharmaceutical-heavy approaches in place, voices are growing louder to offer Vets access to innovative, alternative treatments stateside.
The Bill Already Has Bipartisan Support
Beyond Rep. Correa, who introduced the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act, several lawmakers in both major political camps support the bill.
There is a push for the VA to help educate, provide healthcare, and research the use of many different potential therapies, which include but are not limited to the use of MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and more.
Notable Veteran supporters include Rising, of course, but also groups endorsing the bill, including the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Wounded Warrior Project.
How Veterans Benefit From the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act
Currently, there are several Veterans seeking psychedelics for their mental health, but the problem is, this often occurs outside of the United States.
While you can find Veterans seeking treatment in Mexico, Jamaica, and Peru, you won’t find them here because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has many of these options listed as Schedule I drugs.
This means if you’re a Vet and you have PTSD but want to try MDMA, you’d be committing a felony to attempt this in the same country you defended.
Implementing the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act would eliminate this risk as well as the negative impact that may come from unregulated narcotics provided by people outside of the healthcare industry.
In addition to expanding access and research, the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act will require the VA to file reports on the effects of their program. The hope is to use these findings in the future to deliver even greater reform for Vets.
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