Enhancing equity-oriented care in psychedelic medicine: Utilizing the EQUIP framework

As psychedelic-assisted therapies re-enter mainstream medicine and mental health, concerns about equitable access have arisen, particularly for Black, Indigenous, people of colour, and people who use drugs. These therapies risk exemplifying the inverse care law, where services are least accessible to communities with the most need, especially if regulated into the private sector. This paper examines how the EQUIP Health Care approach—which emphasizes cultural safety, harm reduction, trauma and violence-informed care, and contextual tailoring—could inform the development of equity-oriented psychedelic-assisted therapies, aiming to reduce structural inequities, discrimination, and mismatches between care and the needs of marginalized groups.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Psychedelic-assisted therapies are experiencing a re-emergence in mainstream medicine and mental health contexts. A wide variety of psychedelic-assisted therapy modalities are being utilized to address mental health issues such as substance use disorders, end of life anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, suicidality, PTSD and other conditions. The novel and inchoate acceptance of psychedelic-assisted therapies into mainstream medical and therapeutic realms raises questions of equity. Concerns have been raised that individuals and communities facing structural inequities are perhaps least able to access these treatments including Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) as well as people who use drugs. Psychedelic-assisted therapies may exemplify the inverse law of care whereby services are most inaccessible to communities with the most need, especially if these therapies are regulated into the private sector. As legalization and wider implementation of these therapies appears to be imminent, now is a critical time to consider how health equity may be promoted within psychedelic medicine. This paper examines how the EQUIP Health Care approach (https://equiphealthcare.ca) may inform the development and provision of equity-oriented psychedelic-assisted therapies. The EQUIP approach seeks to reduce the effects of structural inequities on people's health, the impacts of discrimination and stigma, and the mismatches between usual approaches to care and the needs of people most affected by health and social inequities. Key dimensions of the EQUIP intervention include cultural safety, harm reduction, trauma and violence-informed care, and contextual tailoring.