If you have Netflix, chances are you’ve seen a new show called How To Change Your Mind, a documentary about psychedelic drugs.
While on the surface, this might just seem like a niche documentary diving into the world of hippy drugs, but there’s a genuine push from some in the medical community to use psychedelics as part of treating mental health.
It’s part of a changing perception of psychedelics, and our CEO Justin James is leading the charge to have the drugs used to treat mental health - something we’ve never seen before.
Ahead of HIF’s Mental Health and Emerging Therapies session at MEDCON22, Mr James was invited onto the West Live podcast, where he talked to the show’s host Ben O’Shea about research into psychedelics and what it could mean to the private health insurance industry.
Mr James told Ben the medicinal potential of some of these emerging therapies is “extraordinary” and he wants HIF to be at the forefront of helping members access psychedelics if they make it through government and clinical barriers.
“There is a stigma to these types of drugs or alternative therapies, but my job is to help our members access and choose the best mental health therapies that are available to them and emerging therapies are certainly in that basket of what we think we should be talking to them about,” Mr James said.
“Currently Australia is dealing with a huge amount of cost in the system beit private or public to deal with mental health issues in all age groups. If we can identify the future as being one that’s at a lower cost to the community with better clinical outcomes, then I think that’s incumbent on us, as a funder of some of these particular choices, to become involved.”
To listen to the full West Live interview, please click here.