The mental health care company Numinus Wellness Inc. (OTCQX:NUMIF) will provide its evidence-based, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) to HempLucid’s eligible staff through a pilot program to help in the improvement of employee mental health.
The Pilot Ketamine Program: The initiative will take place in Utah, where the company is based, through Cedar Psychiatry, the Numinus brand under which its Utah clinics operate.
Through psychedelic research, production and clinic care, Numinus intends to heal symptoms for depression, anxiety, trauma, pain and substance use. The company’s recent acquisition of Novamind has added eight clinics in Utah and two in Arizona.
Its goal is to expand the corporate KAP service throughout its 13 clinics across North America, and eventually into mainstream clinical practice.
Access To Ketamine Treatment: Although Numinus's Utah clinics have secured coverage from select insurance companies for direct billing of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, access remains a challenge for many patients.
In response to this situation, Cedar Psychiatry and HempLucid have worked with corporate KAP since 2019 to ensure that employees with a mental health diagnosis can access treatment. The arrangement is set for HempLucid to cover the cost of ketamine infusions while leveraging its existing health care insurance plan to support the therapy involved in KAP: the clinics offer patients access to services including ketamine therapy, transcranial-magnetic stimulation (TMS), Spravato, talk therapy and medication management.
'A New Social Contract': Statements by HempLucid’s CEO, Chase Hudson, reflect on the results of offering employees with this type of treatment.
"It's been revolutionary to how we operate as a business. It has shown incredible benefits for healing, positivity, and productivity in the work environment,” he said.
“A new social contract is being formed between employees and employers, and businesses are being forced to take a look at the mental health of their employees. We're working hard to get out ahead of it and take care of our people in a proactive way."
Hudson opines that we are staring at a new era. And it certainly seems that way: mental illness accounts for one of the highest cost-drivers for employers, amounting to 70% of workplace disability costs, according to Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
More numbers back this idea: A study by Deloitte found that the median yearly return-on-investment of each CA$1 (77 cents) spent on mental health programs was CA$2.18 among companies that had mental health initiatives in place for three or more years.
This said, corporate KAP seems to provide an innovative way to help employers increase productivity, lower absenteeism and reduce disability costs by improving employee mental health.
The Last Word: On the matter, Numinus Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Reid Robison added that it's important to take care of not only individual but also collective mental health. The pilot treatment “expands access to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in the interest of not only helping individuals and families, but also a global workforce that continues to report increases in stress and burnout. It is truly inspiring to see a company like HempLucid take care of employees in this way," he said.
