A New Accreditation Model For Psychedelic Practitioners: Learn About APPA And Its Proposals

At the MAPS 2023 conference, Benzinga spoke with Brigadier General (R) Dr. Stephen Xenakis, the executive director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association (APPA,) who has worked with Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights First and in Guantanamo and refugee camps.

Brigadier General (Ret. 1998) Dr. Stephen Xenakis is a psychiatrist with clinical, research and management experience. The senior roles he undertook throughout his military and medical careers informed and reinforced his calling as a doctor and provider of treatments for those in need. 

“I've always felt that, as a doctor, it's my obligation to help people that need it,” he told Benzinga. “So if we can design these treatments and therapies to help those people as well so they can move on and have a life that is meaningful, I feel obligated to that as well.”

A Countrywide Mission

APPA constitutes both an accreditation body for the psychedelic field and a national association for practitioners. The organization was born out of the need to “establish, legitimize, and self-govern” the reemerging field of psychedelics. 

It aims to achieve the integration of psychedelic treatments into the healthcare system and ensure broad access by bringing practitioners together to develop both standards of training and a system of accountability to establish PAT as a safe therapy.

The American Medical Association (AMA) released language for new codes covering PAT reimbursement, which Xenakis called “a good first step.” 

"But there's much that needs to follow for this to be available,” he says, referring to developing accredited training programs and setting up a core curriculum that would help define the type of programs the organization would accredit and recognize so practitioners undertaking them would later go sit for an examination, get certified and then into practice.

Xenakis views defining who will receive the treatments as one of APPA’s major tasks. 

“I think that's still not decided. I don't think that, irrespective of all the years that people have been working on this, that really we can confidently say, this patient has this kind of problem. And this is what's going to work for them,” says Xenakis.

Part two: membership and upcoming work up soon. 

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels, Ground Picture and NDAB Creativity on Shutterstock.