Investing in the promise of psychedelic-assisted therapy reflects the Scattergood Foundation’s enduring commitment to advancing behavioral health.
Thomas Scattergood championed a radically humane approach to mental health grounded in “tender sympathetic attention.” At a time when care was often inhumane, he and his peers chose a different path—one that required scientific curiosity, compassion, and moral courage. That legacy continues to guide us today.
We are once again at a moment of possibility. A growing body of research is expanding our understanding of the brain, trauma, and healing. Psychedelic-assisted therapy is emerging as a promising approach for people experiencing depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders, particularly those who have not found relief through existing treatments.
Promising treatments will only fulfill their potential if they are developed with a strong commitment to safety, ethics, evidence, and equitable access. Too many people continue to face significant barriers to effective behavioral health care. Without intentional planning, emerging therapies could remain available only to those who can afford boutique care rather than becoming part of the public health systems that serve communities with the greatest needs.
In response, the Scattergood Foundation has awarded a $150,000 grant to the Camden Coalition to explore a community-informed model for psilocybin-assisted therapy in Camden, New Jersey.
Working in partnership with the Psychedelic Mental Health Access Alliance and Cooper University Health Care’s Department of Psychiatry and Center for Healing, the Camden Coalition will lead a three-phase community engagement process. Through listening sessions, focus groups, and workshops, residents, people with lived experience, care providers, and community leaders will help shape how a future psilocybin-assisted therapy pilot could work in practice—particularly for people who receive care through publicly funded systems.
This work comes at a pivotal time for New Jersey. In January 2026, the state enacted legislation establishing a two-year Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Therapy Pilot Program. The law allocates $6 million to support clinical trials at up to three hospitals, one each in northern, central, and southern New Jersey, using protocols aligned with federal guidelines. Data from the pilots will inform recommendations for the program’s potential continuation or expansion. Learn more about the legislation.
By centering community perspectives at the outset, the Camden Coalition and its partners will lay the groundwork for a model that is culturally responsive, accessible to Medicaid beneficiaries and other underserved populations, and sustainable within real-world public health systems. The lessons from this work could help guide the equitable implementation of psychedelic-assisted therapy across New Jersey and beyond.
This investment also builds upon the ideas explored in the Scattergood Foundation’s new paper, Urgency Without Compromise: Building Safe, Equitable Access to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. The paper examines how the behavioral health field can move this promising work forward while protecting safety, maintaining scientific rigor, and ensuring that access and equity remain central.
To invest in this moment is to carry forward a legacy of pairing scientific advancement with compassion, and evidence with action. Meaningful progress in behavioral health requires both rigor and boldness.