Be a part of what’s next for mental health and recovery at our Frontiers Summit on November 9-10th in Washington, D.C.
BrainFutures is bringing together national leaders, innovators, researchers, patients, and changemakers to explore some of the most pressing questions and promising opportunities shaping the future of mental health care. With more than 40 speakers, the conversations will be shaped by leaders like:
Rick Lambert, MD – Federal liaison, SAMHSA/OAS
Al Bugazia, MD – ARPA-H
Gül Dölen, MD, PhD - University of California, Berkeley
Michael Davis, MD, PhD – U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Andrew Gradison, JD – Veterans Health Administration
Anthony Estreet, PhD, MBA, LCSW-C – National Association of Social Workers
Steven Gillaspy, PhD – American Psychological Association
Carol Hubner, PhD - National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Jessica Jackson, PhD - Mental Health America
The summit centers on working sessions thatmove from problem identification to practical outcomes.We’ll tackle critical challenges, weaving safety and ethics throughout, as we build strategies for system readiness and ensure psychedelic therapies and other emerging treatments are integrated into the existing continuum of care.
BrainFutures offers sincere gratitude to the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation for making Frontiers possible.
We have a limited number of invitations remaining.
Building the Medical Competencies for Psychedelic Care
As psychedelic therapies move closer to clinical practice, important questions remain about medical screening, prescribing responsibilities, patient safety, and emergency preparedness.
BrainFutures' is expanding its Core Competency initiative to include a Prescriber and Medical Oversight Subcommittee to work through these questions.
The FDA's recent public hearing reinforced the urgency of establishing evidence-based standards. Our core competencies work aims to give educators, clinicians, employers, and health systems a shared foundation for preparing qualified care teams and delivering safe, ethical, and consistent treatment.
We're grateful to the experts contributing their time and experience to help shape these standards as the field evolves.
Building Psychedelic Care into the Behavioral Health System
BrainFutures joined Mental Health America, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in submitting collaborative public comments to the FDA outlining a roadmap for readiness.
Our recommendations focus on six priorities:
Protecting patients at every stage
Building on existing professional licenses
Training care teams to meet core competencies
Integrating peer support professionals to expand workforce capacity
Establishing sustainable reimbursement
Leveraging telehealth where clinically appropriate
These recommendations are based on our Professional Practice Guidelines, which we will update in 2027, and on our partners' work to advance peer support models, professional training, and telehealth practices that can inform how psychedelic care is delivered. Existing approaches offer a foundation for expanding care teams, supporting patients between appointments, and reaching communities with limited access to providers.
Our recommendations have attracted media attention, with coverage from
Inside Health Policy, Mental Health Weekly, and HCPLive’s Q&A with BrainFutures' Sarah Norman.
We're grateful to our partners for their leadership in advancing this important conversation. As the field moves toward potential approval, preparing our health care system cannot wait.
New Research Highlights the Promise of Executive Function Training
October is ADHD Awareness Month, bringing attention to the challenges children with ADHD face and the strategies that can support their learning and development.
Through our work in Maryland classrooms, we’re strengthening executive function skills, including working memory, cognitive flexibility, and self-control. We see the important role they play in how children learn, manage everyday tasks, and regulate their behavior. These skills can be particularly challenging for children with ADHD.
A new analysis published in eClinicalMedicine examined 118 studies involving more than 5,800 children and adolescents, including 83 studies focused on ADHD. Researchers found promising evidence that non-pharmacological interventions, particularly computer-based cognitive games and cognitively engaging physical activities, may help strengthen executive function skills.
Through the ACTIVATE™ program we’re implementing, students participate in both strategies that showed promise in the analysis, and our data also show gains in student performance in these critical brain skills.
“It is well known that neuropathology differs among children with these diagnoses and within the large age range. This means that with some of the interventions and with sufficient dose, substantial numbers of children had large effects.”
-Dr. Bruce Wexler, BrainFutures Advisory Board Member ACTIVATE™ Founder
The findings reinforce the value of linking neuroscience research to practical strategies schools can use to support students, including those with ADHD.
Senior Director Jazz Glastra is back from the Psychedelic Healthcare Forum at Horizons, where she moderated three discussions with panelists from Compass Pathways, Psychedelic Mental Health Access Alliance, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the Health Transformation Alliance.
Participants discussed the complexity of the reimbursement landscape and the multiplicity of approaches to health plan coverage—from public payers such as state Medicaid programs to self-funded employer plans. But what happens when insurance coverage falls short, and patients still need access?
The panel discussed using mental health parity laws to drive coverage, but when all else fails, clinicians sometimes turn to manufacturer-run patient assistance programs. Dr. Jeffrey Zabinski, Director of Interventional Psychiatry at Columbia University, expressed skepticism and frustration about the utility of these programs given his prior experience advocating for patients.
In an exchange between Dr. Zabinski and Lori Englebert, Chief Commercial Officer at Compass Pathways, Englebert publicly committed the company to doing a better job with patient assistance programs than other drug companies with which Dr. Zabinski has previously interfaced.
Compass Pathways is likely to be among the first companies to earn FDA approval for a psychedelic, though it has yet to finalize its new drug application, and future approval is not guaranteed. The company is one of many with Phase 2 and Phase 3 psychedelic drugs in the clinical trial pipeline.
We’re expecting more thoughtful discussions at these upcoming events:
October 28 | Models of Care Summit | Usona Institute | Wisconsin
October 29-30 | UW-Madison Psychedelic Symposium 2026: On Your Mark | Wisconsin
November 6 | Edge of Medicine | Steve & Alexandra Cohen Foundation | New York
November 9-10 | Frontiers of Mental Health and Recovery | Presented by BrainFutures | Washington, D.C.
November 12 | Rapid Acting Mental Health Treatment Summit | New York
November 20-22 | Psychedelic Lived Experiences Summit - Beyond the Protocol | Online
November 21-23 | The Future of Brain Health Panel: Innovation, New Policies, and Better Outcomes at the State Government Affairs Council's Leaders' Policy Conference | Arizona
Worth Exploring
The Psychedelic Education Partnership opened its latest cohort to support faculty ready to teach evidence-based psychedelic content in their programs. This opportunity connects educators with resources and individualized curriculum support. Learn more.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announced a $20 million funding opportunity to advance research on rapid-acting psychotropic interventional drugs (RAPIDS), including ketamine, esketamine, psilocybin, and other emerging treatments. Explore the grant opportunity.
Advancing Evidence-Based Practices
“BrainFutures is providing hope for so many people by paving the way for psychedelic therapies to enter clinical practice."
