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# Psychedelics Won't Fix Veteran Access to Mental Healthcare
- URL: https://ghost.psymposia.com/psychedelics-wont-fix-veteran-access-to-mental-healthcare/
- Published: 2026-05-22T12:00:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T01:01:53.000Z
- Description: This clip from our 5/20/2026 episode looks at the gap between the rhetoric around psychedelics for veterans and the actual state of veteran mental healthcare infrastructure.
- Author: Mike Elliott
- Tags: Videos, #youtube, #youtube-transcript

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This clip from our 5/20/2026 episode looks at the gap between the rhetoric around psychedelics for veterans and the actual state of veteran mental healthcare infrastructure.

A ProPublica investigation details how mental health providers are leaving the VA amid staffing shortages, burnout, and policy changes under Trump-era leadership. At the same time, psychedelic therapy is increasingly being promoted as a breakthrough solution for veterans suffering from PTSD and depression.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is resource-intensive. It requires trained clinicians, long sessions, screening, preparation, monitoring, and follow-up care. If the VA is already struggling to provide basic mental healthcare how realistic is it to imagine psychedelic therapy becoming widely accessible for veterans?

Footnotes:

Veterans Who Depend on Mental Health Care Keep Losing Their Therapists Under Trump

[https://www.propublica.org/article/veterans-affairs-mental-health-therapists-quit-trump](https://www.propublica.org/article/veterans-affairs-mental-health-therapists-quit-trump?ref=ghost.psymposia.com)

ICER meeting on MDMA-assisted therapy

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohD\_nbaqSU4&list=PLJ7rscUNlop4jr8a8oQYfVgEziLIkp-Jx](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohD%5FnbaqSU4&list=PLJ7rscUNlop4jr8a8oQYfVgEziLIkp-Jx&ref=ghost.psymposia.com)

## Transcript

*This transcript was generated automatically from YouTube's captions, then cleaned up by removing filler words, repeated words and background sounds. It may still contain errors.*

[\[00:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=0s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Hey there, I'm Russell with Psymposia and the following clip from our May 20th podcast episode highlights the deterioration of the Veterans Affairs mental health services under Trump and how that relates to psychedelic development and marketing. And I did want to jump in on the ProPublica story related to veterans who depend on mental health care keep losing their therapists under Trump. This is a story that came out not too long ago. It's a focus that ProPublica has had for some time and I think relates directly to a lot of the conversations we've been having today and over the last couple months as the Trump administration has began discussing mental health and embracing psychedelics.

[\[00:49\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=49s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) All of these things I think congeal well through this story. So the ProPublica report they discuss the worsening state of mental health care at the VA as the Trump administration has continued. If we want to pull up image one and then image two. I think these are just some stats from the story that I just wanted to bring into the conversation. Number one, hundreds of therapists and social workers have left the VA. many of whom have not been replaced since Trump came to office. And then image two has a couple of more stats. Those being mental health is not the only area where the VA has lost medical staff. The agency has eliminated more than 14,000 vacant healthcare positions across the system.

[\[01:36\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=96s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) According to data first reported by the New York Times, data published by the VA going back to May 2023 shows that the agency was adding psychologists every quarter until Trump's return to the White House. Then the trend flipped with departures outpacing hires in all four quarters of last year. Compounding the losses, the AY's cohort of social workers, some of whom are licensed therapists who provide mental health counseling, declined by nearly 700 staffers over the year. So, I just wanted to bring these stats into the conversation and then some of the experiences that are detailed in this article. So, the first experience we have, this one's from a psychologist at the VA who said, "It was always bad," said one VA psychologist referring to staffing at a facility in Arizona.

[\[02:21\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=141s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And now it's at its breaking point. The therapist described being stretched so thin that schedules replaced some one-on-one sessions with online group sessions that included as many as 35 veterans. The therapist said despite that, they were still overloaded with individual sessions and had to limit each one to as little as 16 minutes. The next experience we have is from patient George Rhettz, 26, who left the army in 2022 after serving for four years when he was driving and suddenly caught between immigration agents and protesters. Rhetts said the agents broke his car window, pepper- sprrayed him, and detained him for days. The incident, which ProPublica detailed in full last fall, left him shaken and exacerbated the PTSD that was first sparked after he faced missile attacks in Iraq.

[\[03:11\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=191s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Following his release, Rhettz found himself withdrawing from the world. Quote, "I wasn't texting anyone or talking to anyone, not even my kids." A few weeks after being arrested, Rhettz sought help from the VA clinic in Ventura, California, where staffers told him they'd be in touch for an appointment. But Rhett said he never heard back even after he called to follow up. His incident with ICE was in July. Rhettz is still waiting. According to data on the VA's website, new patients seeking individual therapy at the Ventura Clinic had to wait an average of two and a half months in early February. And then one final experience from this article that I wanted to bring up was another worker from the VA on why she left. Psychologist Mary Brinkmeer started at the VA facility in metropolitan Norfol, Virginia in 2022 after seeing a posting for an LGBTQ care coordinator, which oversees support programs for LGBTQ veterans and helps navigate their care.

[\[04:08\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=248s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) She quit last February after her superiors began enforcing Trump's anti-diversity orders. Brinkmeer said she was told to stop conducting trainings for physicians and other staff on best practices for caring for LGBTQ patients. Then she said staff members were ordered to remove all LGBTQ paraphernalia from the facility such as rainbow flags, identity affirming literature, and program brochures. Also, an edict was issued directing people to use the bathroom of their gender assigned at birth. Brinkmeer said that's when the VA stopped feeling like a welcoming place. Quote, "There was a failure of empathy." She said, "It's sad. It's just sad. I mean, it's more than sad. It's enraging, but I mean this sort of when people talk about, you know, a hostile climate, this is what it is.

[\[04:56\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=296s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) If people don't feel safe, let alone respected in their workplace, like people quit. They go do something else. You know, nobody wants to, particularly people who are in the healing professions, you know, these people know, you know, what works. They know their clients. They know what their clients need and when they see structural things that are, you know, in contravention of those principles and those practices, many of them have professional and personal ethics that require them to not participate in that sort of thing, you know. So, it's like duh. But I mean I think in the broader sort of sense of some of the things that we talk about in the you know psychedelic right as it were veterans are supposed to be the ones that are you know taken care of and centered because of all of their sacrifice and such and you know this is what it looks like with non- psychedelic mental health care which is

[\[05:56\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=356s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I think in part why you know we're talking about this. So thanks for bringing that to our attention. Do you appreciate the work we do at Psymposia? Whether that's our long- form journalistic articles, our informational video content, the occasional comic or academic presentation. If so, go check us out on Patreon where you can help keep our lights on and get your hands on some bonus content. And not only that, what I wanted to bring into this conversation from our neck of the woods is some of the recordings that were from the ISER meeting that was kind of examining the MDMA application. One of the attendees at the ISER meeting on MDMA assisted therapy was Peter Glman, the chair of the medical advisory panel for VA pharmacy benefits management services.

[\[06:41\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=401s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) So the video I'm going to play here is first just emphasizing how veterans have come into the recent conversation on the right around psychedelics. And that's going to cut to the conversation with Peter Glassman during the ISER conversation. Today I'm pleased to announce historic reforms to dramatically accelerate access to new medical research and treatments based on psychedelic drugs. In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression, including our cherished veterans. Today's order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life.

[\[07:27\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=447s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) You know, just lead a happier life. So, these are the promises being made to veterans. This next video kind of stresses the realities. And also joining us is Pete Glassman who is the chair of the medical advisory panel of the VA pharmacy benefits management services. I've known Pete for a long time. So think of him as the VA. Just think of him as the person who helps the VA figure out what to do with new drugs and he's seen it all. Pete, how long have you been working in that kind of capacity there? Let's see. Since about 96\. So what's that about 20 27 28 years when we look at the resources that are required or will be required if this gets approved the therapists etc for example just take the therapists alone number that will need to get trained that will have to be paid for and those folks will need to undertake that training which is my understanding is it's quite a lot of hours just to train but we also exist in the middle of

[\[08:30\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=510s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) All these this private healthcare and there's going to be a lot of private health care that's going to want to provide this as well to their patients maybe to veterans as well. They're going to be grabbing for these therapists as well. They want those therapists to be able to be in there. So, we're going to be if you will competing for similar resources, human resources in this case. So, there's the dynamic of equity within the healthare system at large. And then within the VA, of course, there's the issues that were so in a system that's already strained for the workers it needs. The person who helps implement new drugs into the VA is already saying back in 2024, they're going to be struggling to find the staff for this, to find the time for training and the money for training for this kind of care.

[\[09:19\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=559s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) It's okay. According to PSFC, we're going to have a million new or 100,000 new mental health psychedelic facilitators in the next what by 2030 or something. Several years. Yeah. Get working on that. Yeah. I've been seeing these Instagram ads. I saw one. I was going to send it to you guys. I fig I forgot to send it to you guys, but it was like anyone can become a psychedelic therapist for $96 in as little as three days. Everywhere on Instagram now, every ad for me is some sort of either recruitment for a psychedelic clinical trial or some \[expletive\] mind bloom nonsense or the psychedelic micro dose Ammonita mascaria. That's what all of mine are is like, hey, do you like Amanita Mascaria?

[\[10:06\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=606s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Everybody's taking this. It's just like all maha psychedelic slop. All righty. And I think James is going to bounce here, but we'll wrap up without him. Good. Thanks for being here, James. The other quote that I wanted to bring in from that ISER meeting is how he actually sees psychedelics being implemented with veterans. So, I'm going to pull that video up really quick here. Bear with me. I think I've got it right here. So, just do you have any thoughts on how the VA will create its own criteria for who gets started on MDMA? I haven't seen anything yet, but you know the evidence as you know you took those votes earlier about the level of evidence and the quality of evidence which is let's say dicey but marginal at best whereas you have a series of therapies that are far better known the safety profile is known these to a far greater extent.

[\[11:03\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=663s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) So from that point of view alone, I think that people would want to go through, as Marina just pointed out, a the quality therapies before they get to the less known, if you will, both from an efficacy and a safety point of view. And then finally, as Jar pointed out, the people that were coming into these trials were highly selected. I noticed that as well, that the number of people that were chosen for therapy is much smaller than the number of people that were considered eligible or screened. which leads me to believe that a lot of the people needed other therapies anyway as a first-line therapy or weren't applicable for this. So I think you're having a both from a practical view and evidentiary point of view long before you even get to the cost infrastructure issue, you have reasons to emphasize well documented and well-known therapies first.

[\[11:54\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=714s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And so like despite the hype we're hearing from the administration and stuff, these are the kinds of conversations that appear to be happening in the internal structure of places like the VA when they're discussing how to implement these medications. It's not going to be a first-line treatment. It's not going to be easy to staff people for this. It's I think it's really interesting just the way that they are looking at how the sausage is made that comment about you know the selectivity of the study you know the we just have to recall that he's looking at the published research this is you know circa 2024 just before the you know the FDA made a decision on this but you know this is all of the studies that have been touted as this is the best, you know, revolutionary mental health treatment.

[\[12:45\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=765s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And he's saying like, look at how many people have been interviewed and how many of them reject were rejected versus how many got in. And that is an indication that this isn't just some like wide openen door where, you know, any person who has a qualifying condition walks in. It's is pointing to the fact that they disqualified many people before they included them in their study to get the numbers that are then touted as you know as this mental health cure. Was it representative Koreah was was out there talking California talking about how this is a mind cure. Every day in America 20 to 40 veterans take their own lives because of PTSD.

[\[13:34\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=814s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) What we want to do is save veterans, make sure that they're healed from those invisible wounds that they bring back from the battlefield. And this Iberane psychedelics promises to be that magic cure that fixes not only mental health, PTSD, but alcoholism, drug addiction, and a host of other things, maybe Alzheimer's as well. And is it only from your perspective, congressman, applicable to veterans with traumatic brain injuries or PTSD? Or could it be also for civilians traumatized by other things like mass shootings or car accidents and the like? Absolutely. This promises to revolutionize the way we address mental health in our society.

[\[14:20\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=860s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) It's I mean it's a huge scandal. It's fraud is what it is. And it's fraud that is being, you know, perpetrated on a definitionally traumatized group of people. Like it's promising false hope, you know, or unverified hope at best to people who do deserve good treatments and it's wasting people's times. How many people have been, you know, paying thousands of dollars out of pocket, you know, for some, you know, maps? I guess they should have waited for the, you know, n$96 Instagram certification, you know, but like these people who are getting certified in therapeutic modalities that, you know, at this point probably won't be, you know, a part of any kind of protocol like the it's just not it's not a robust evidence-based effect.

[\[15:10\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpofSZyVwE&t=910s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Like psychedelics as a medical intervention have not met the standard. You know, that's why you have to go through the executive order process. Like, you know, science in general is not supposed to be rule by edict kind of thing. It's you bring the evidence, you make the argument. And public health says we rate weigh the risks and benefits and in some cases the costs. And it's just they are going to these other alternate routes because they are so missionoriented because they are so they're such zots.