☁️🍄 Issue No. 037

Good morning, and welcome back to your weekly download on the latest in mental health and psychedelics.

QUICK HITS

• In bloom. Mindbloom releases its first America on Psychedelics report.

• All for one. The US youth mental health crisis demands a community response.

• Kratomic. Congressmen introduce a new bill to regulate kratom nationwide.

• Cultured. Employees say they prefer company culture change over self-care apps when it comes to mental health. 

• Caution sign. FDA issues warning over the risks of compounded ketamine products, including oral formulations, for treating psychiatric disorders.

• Top of mind. Mindfulness & meditation apps are projected to clear $1.48B from 2022 to 2027.

• Right and wrong. The WHO and UN Humans Rights Office launched new guidance to improve laws addressing human rights violations in mental health care.

• Quality control. New report examines 2M+ measures on anxiety and depression from 200K patients to help clinicians measure treatment efficacy and improve outcomes.

• Spirited away. Gallup report explores the connection between faith and mental well-being. [Re-read Issue No. 013: That’s the Spirit]

NEWS & TRENDS

1) Close but no cigar

It’s official: California’s decrim bill is a no-go. Last Saturday, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 58, which would have decriminalized psychedelic substances in the Golden State. All this comes after SB-58 cleared a long and complex state legislative process. This represents thwarted attempt number two.

The decision surprised and disappointed many. After all, the former SF mayor has championed cannabis reform in the past, and even publicly declared his belief in the power of psychedelic medicine. But the issue with this bill, according to Newsom, is the lack of existing treatment guidelines to “prevent against exploitation” and other medical risks.

So, what’s next? Back to the drawing board, perhaps. Meanwhile, some believe that the news may portend the death of state decrim initiatives. In other words, the future of the psychedelic renaissance may very well be medicalized.

2) ŌURA’s big mental health bet

ŌURA is going all-in on mental wellness. Just a few weeks after announcing its collaboration with teletherapy platform Talkspace, the smart ring maker has locked in two more major partnerships — this time, with meditation unicorn Headspace and enterprise burnout company Thrive Global. 

The announcement also comes with a brand new suite of stress management features.

1. Daytime Stress identifies triggers and helps members log which experiences stress them out and which interventions help them recover.

2. Reflections is an AI-powered journal where members can speak and record a short journal entry, using a single gesture to record mood and mental state.

3. Stress Resilience (debuting in the winter) provides an assessment of members’ ability to withstand physiological stress.

Ring a bell? Indeed, this summer Apple just debuted a lineup of mental health tools, including a mood tracker, journaling app, and detection/assessment functionalities. Seems like ŌURA’s vying for a bite of Apple’s mental health pie.

DEALS & DEBUTS

🌻 Flourish Labs, a peer support mental health platform, landed a $6.6M seed and partnered with healthcare provider Sutter Health to launch Peers.net, opening up its services to teenagers for the first time. → source

💪 Sutter Health partnered with creative agency Code and Theory to develop and launch Scout, a resilience-building mental health app designed for teens and young adults.→ source

🍁 The Canadian and Ontarian government are committing over $8M to support the mental health and wellness of farmers and their families. → source

💭 Headspace teamed up with Hyatt to offer guests and members a complimentary sampling of relaxing sounds, available via the World of Hyatt App and in-room TVs at select properties.→ source

🧠 Active Minds, a young adult mental health nonprofit, joined forces with MTV Entertainment Studios to launch a mental health campaign dubbed A.S.K. and with peer support platform ShareWell to support LGBTQIA+ youth. → source, source

🎁 The James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Foundation made a $15M gift to support the creation of a new mental and behavioral health institute (MBHI) for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. → source

🍽️ The Chopra Foundation is partnering with Aggrigator, a marketplace for sellers and buyers of fresh local food, to provide whole-health meals and highlight the connection between diet and mental health.→ source

🌱 Spring Health, a workforce mental health platform, is collaborating with healthcare company Highmark Health to launch Mental Well-Being, a multi-dimensional care platform.→ source

🖥️ Amwell is joining forces with health insurance administrator Discovery Health to bring a first-of-its-kind digital mental health benefit to South Africa.→ source

WHAT I’M READING

• Breathwork is booming. As we wrote about back in March, breathwork is going digital and mainstream. Shifting the focus from the brain to the body, this article explores the delicate interplay between the religion of and research behind such alternative therapies. → proto.life

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re enjoying autumn. As for me, I’ve caught my first cold of the season, as seems to be the case for many as the weather changes. 🙃 Wishing all who are in the same boat lots of fluids and rest.

‘Til next Sunday,-Mel