This Veteran’s Day, Support Access to Innovative Mental Health Treatments
As we reflect on the courage and sacrifice of those who served this Veterans Day, we should commit ourselves to advocating for policies that will meaningfully change their lives for the better — especially when it comes to their mental health and wellbeing. That’s why I’m calling on my colleagues to support the Access to Innovative Mental Health Treatments Act.
For many veterans, coming home is the beginning of another battle. The good news is that through rigorous large-scale clinical trials and scientific studies, a wave of mental health innovation involving psychedelic medicines is moving through the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory process.
Countless veterans across New York live with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other psychological injuries sustained during their time in service. Many have gone to therapy, taken medications, and sought solutions, but still struggle every day. As promising new mental health treatments move closer to federal approval, New York has an opportunity to review its current regulatory pathways and ensure that innovative medicines are available to our veterans on day one.
As Chair of the New York State Senate Veterans Committee, I consistently hear from veterans and their loved ones who have spent years searching for relief. They deserve access to every safe and effective treatment modern medicine has to offer. And they deserve access as soon as they have been thoroughly reviewed and approved.
For many, traditional therapies and medications fail to provide meaningful relief, often leaving veterans to cycle through prescriptions and continue searching for answers. That’s where emerging evidence-based medicines may have a role to play.
These are carefully studied compounds administered in controlled medical settings under the supervision of trained healthcare professionals. Data generated through clinical trials has been promising, offering a potential new path forward for veterans and others facing treatment-resistant conditions.
After the FDA completes its extensive review and approves these medicines and the Drug Enforcement Administration reschedules, New York must ensure it is ready to provide access to these potential new innovations.
That’s why I introduced the Access to Innovative Mental Health Treatments Act.
The bill doesn’t change the FDA’s rigorous approval process, weaken medical safeguards, or impact the DEA’s role in rescheduling. Those decisions remain exactly where they belong with researchers, scientists, physicians, and clinical staff. Instead, it modernizes New York’s controlled substances law so that once the federal government approves a compound and the DEA reschedules it, our state has a clear process to update its own classifications. That means doctors can prescribe these medications, insurers can begin covering them without unnecessary delays, and patients have timely access.
This doesn’t mean entire classes of drugs will suddenly become decriminalized. These are individual, FDA-approved medications to be administered in a controlled, clinical setting.
Veterans’ organizations recognize the risk of delayed access. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of New York, Western New York Heroes, and the Kyle Palmieri Foundation support this legislation because they know firsthand that too many veterans are still searching for treatments that work. They see the impact that untreated and treatment-resistant mental health conditions have not only on veterans, but also on their families, caregivers, and communities.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. In 2023, 167 veterans died by suicide in New York, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nationwide, 6,398 veterans died by suicide. That’s an average of more than 17 every day. These numbers reflect a crisis that demands solutions, and modernizing this area of law should be top of mind for my colleagues in the legislature.
When the Legislature returns next session, advancing the Access to Innovative Mental Health Treatments Act will remain one of my top priorities. I’ll continue working with my colleagues, veterans’ organizations, and Gov. Kathy Hochul to move this legislation forward and ensure New York is ready when these groundbreaking treatments receive federal approval.
Our veterans have already sacrificed enough. When breakthrough, FDA-approved treatments are finally within reach, New York should be ready to deliver and not make them wait even longer.
Jessica Scarcella-Spanton represents the 23rd State Senate District covering parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, and serves as Chair of the Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee.
