New Grant Launches Home-Based Psychedelic and Spiritual Care Pilot for Palliative and Hospice Patients
The pilot is designed to address profound psychospiritual and existential distress at the end of life.
ASHLAND, OR, UNITED STATES, February 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new pilot program funded by a grant from the non-profit Healing Hearts, Changing Minds will test an innovative model of care that brings psychedelic-assisted therapy and structured spiritual care directly into the homes of palliative and hospice patients, addressing profound psychological and existential distress at the end of life.
The Home-Based Psychedelic and Spiritual Care (HBPS) pilot is a collaboration between End of Life Psychedelic Care (EOLPC), Institute for Rural Psychedelic Care (IRPC), and Ligare.
Psychedelic therapy has shown promise in reducing depression, anxiety, pain, and existential distress in patients with serious illness. Yet access remains limited by geography, mobility, and reimbursement barriers. HBPS seeks to address these challenges by embedding therapy within existing hospice and palliative care frameworks and pairing it with intentional, professionally delivered spiritual care.
“Home-based psychedelic care is not simply about convenience, it’s about meeting people where their lives are actually unfolding,” said Michael Fratkin, MD, President of the Institute for Rural Psychedelic Care and one of the nation’s most experienced physicians delivering legal psychedelic therapy in home settings. “This model prioritizes careful medical screening, conservative dosing, and close follow-up, while recognizing that psychological and existential suffering deserve the same clinical rigor as physical symptoms. By formalizing protocols and gathering outcomes data, this pilot helps establish what safe and ethical care at home can look like.”
A defining feature of HBPS is the integration of structured spiritual care before, during, and after the medicine sessions. Spiritual care team members are paired with palliative medicine physicians and trained to support meaning-making, reconciliation, and connection, dimensions of suffering that often intensify as illness progresses. “In palliative care, spiritual distress often shows up as unresolved relationships, fear of death, or a loss of meaning, not as abstract beliefs, but as lived experience,” said Hunt Priest, Founder of Ligare and Spiritual Director for the pilot. “Spiritual care in this program is relational and non-doctrinal. It helps patients articulate what matters most, process profound experiences that may arise, and integrate insights into how they live, and die, with greater peace and integrity.”
The pilot will enroll fifteen patients across the three sites, each receiving preparation, medicine sessions and post-session integration supported by a spiritual care team member. Outcomes will be measured using validated clinical and spiritual well-being scales, alongside qualitative patient narratives. Data collection and analysis will be led by Unlimited Sciences, a nonprofit research organization specializing in real-world psychedelic outcomes.
Beyond patient outcomes, HBPS is designed to address a critical systems-level gap: the lack of sustainable reimbursement pathways for psychological and spiritual care at end of life.
“This project is about building community-based infrastructure that can actually last,” said Christine Caldwell, Founder and Executive Director of End of Life Psychedelic Care. “We are intentionally testing models that align with hospice agencies, the VA, and other public systems, because innovation without reimbursement doesn’t translate into access. Our goal is to demonstrate not only clinical value, but a framework that communities can adapt, fund, and sustain.”
Grant funding will support clinical and spiritual services, training, data collection and analysis, and the creation of a Clinical and Spiritual Care Manual to support replication. Findings from the pilot will be shared publicly to inform broader adoption in palliative and hospice care nationwide.
About the Collaborators
End of Life Psychedelic Care is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing safe, ethical, and accessible psychedelic care for individuals facing life-limiting illness. The Institute for Rural Psychedelic Care supports physician-led psychedelic therapy and research in underserved communities. Ligare is a Christian Psychedelic Society that provides spiritual care, education, and ethical guidance in the Christian contemplative tradition which learns from, respects and values the world’s other religions.
Christine Caldwell
End of Life Psychedelic Care
+1 941-928-5917
christine@eolpc.org
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
