28/05/2026
Love this 🫶
Broadening the scope for people to access support and for practitioners to support those wanting to explore these spaces is so important. The more education, regulation, research and genuine care we bring into this field, the more opportunity there is for healing, connection and real change.
Bring on the day retreat-style experiences are here in Tassie in a bigger way 🫶
AAT will be ready 🔥
BIG NEWS!
The Therapeutic Goods Administration - TGA has just released more flexible requirements for the delivery of M**A and psilocybin assisted therapies for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and patients suffering from treatment resistant depression. This is something that Mind Medicine Australia has been advocating for with the TGA since early 2023 when the TGA announced its initial requirements. Importantly, the TGA’s more flexible requirements should improve patient access and reduce patient costs without adversely affecting patient safety.
The changes include:
1. Broadening the range of therapists who are able to be involved in delivering psychedelic assisted therapy. The TGA had been insisting that a clinical psychologist had to be present with the patient throughout the dosing sessions in the absence of the prescribing psychiatrist. Given the shortages of both psychiatrists and clinical psychologists this requirement was adversely affecting patient access and significantly increasing patient costs. The TGA has now expanded the clinical psychologist requirement to include general practitioners, mental health nurses and occupational therapist who are registered with their appropriate National Boards. There is also broader scope for the prescribing psychiatrist to choose the background of the other therapist provided the therapist has appropriate training in these therapies and experience with treating patients with the relevant mental health conditions.
2. Confirming that whilst the psychiatrist needs to be present for the actual administration of the medicines the psychiatrist doesn’t need to be in the room with the patient for the remainder of the dosing session and can be offsite but available.
3. Confirmation that the dosing sessions can occur in a clinic rather than a hospital provided that the clinic is within 15 minutes of an emergency department.
This will all lead to more accessible therapy teams, easier clinical logistics, greater patient accessibility and lower patient costs.
The one critical area that the TGA didn’t sort out was minimum clinical practitioner training requirements. The TGA argued that it didn’t have the legislative mandate to do this but it does represent by far the weakest link in the regulatory requirements as it directly impacts patient safety.
Mind Medicine Australia’s Certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies (CPAT) course is taught by leading experts in the field from around the World and involves over 100 hours of structured learning including a one week residential. We are now seeing some courses being run over a weekend which can’t possibly provide practitioners with adequate safety training in this merging field.
Mind Medicine Australia’s submission to the TGA can be found here – https://buff.ly/NNxEQmu
The full TGA announcement can be found here https://buff.ly/fjuG1Ae
