Psychedelics at End of Life: Citizen Science

My name is Michael Fratkin. I am a father, a husband, a palliative care physician and nearly infinitely curious about the motivations and interest of my fellow hospice and palliative medicine colleagues.

The simple ask is to help finance a small and important study to define the current knowledge base, prexisting experience, and level of interest among physicians, nurses, social workers, and spiritual care professionals in our field regarding the emergence (re-emergence!) of legally available safe use of psychedelic assisted therapy to promote healing in people facing serious illness, loss, and the approaching of death.

Our society is rapidly changing and the availability of psychedelic therapies across multiple domains of suffering is here. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is widely available now. MDMA assisted psychotherapy is likely legal and available in 2024. Psilocybin assisted psychotherapy will be legal, just around the corner. In parallel to this legal process advancing these therapies through the FDA and DEA processes, a number of local, regional, and state initiatives are actively and successfully seeking decriminalization of psychedelic plants and and even structuring production, distribution, and legal therapeutic pathways that will serve folks outside of the mainstream healthcare system.

All this is meant to emphasize the predictable impact of psychedelic therapies on the practice of palliative care and the provision of hospice care. By supporting this study, you will help us with this small and important step to define the mindset, knowledge base and interest of our professional colleagues!

Thank you!

Michael D. Fratkin, MD, FAAHPM

Recent Chair of the Safe Use of Psychedelic Assisted Therapies for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine

Board Member-Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies

Co-Founder- PalCarePsychedelicTherapies Special Interest Group

Palliative Care Specialist-Center for New Growth