Psychedelic Public Health: From Frameworks to Community Action

The field of public health has the potential to amplify and accelerate psychedelic benefits at collective scales, even as regulatory constraints remain. Rather than focusing solely on individual outcomes, this public health approach emphasizes populations and communities where people live, work, and play to expand psychedelic safety and benefits into communities and populations regardless of regulatory status. However, even though public health expertise in implementation science, population dynamics, and community-centered strategies are critical for achieving scalable, effective outcomes, fewer than 10% of Psychedelic Research Centers collaborate with public health schools and only 3% employ public health professionals. This session begins to address this gap as it defines frameworks and strategies comprising the emerging field of psychedelic public health with a commitment to safety and equity. Each speaker will address the translation of theory and frameworks to practice, from community work to public sector policy and programs, focusing on equity and collective effects. Session aims are to 1) provide working definitions and assess the current state of the field, with implications for equity, 2) Identify key frameworks that undergird successful psychedelic public health approaches, 3) Relay what is involved in centering Indigenous people, lived experience experts, and community-based work, 4) Define what a public health approach contributes to successful policies, and public sector service and infrastructure.