Everyone has a story: talking about mental health

In this special episode of “Everyone has a story: talking about mental health”, COMPASS Pathways’ Co-founders, Ekaterina Malievskaia and George Goldsmith, chat to Kabir Nath, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer from 1 August 2022, and former Senior Managing Director of global pharmaceuticals at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Kabir talks about his story, his new role, and making COMPASS’s mission a reality.

Caring for cancer patients should include their mental as well as their physical health. COMPASS Pathways’ Ekaterina Malievskaia talks to Manish Agrawal, medical oncologist and co-director of clinical research at Aquilino Cancer Center in Maryland, an outpatient community centre dedicated to whole person cancer care. In 2020, Manish was part of the team that built the Center for Healing at Aquilino, designed to address the emotional toll of cancer on patients and caregivers. Manish is now in the final stages of an FDA-approved clinical trial in psilocybin therapy for cancer patients with depression, the first of its kind. In the trial, patients are given psilocybin, a psychoactive substance, while supported one-to-one by a specially trained therapist, with preparation and integration sessions before and after the psilocybin session. Manish talks about the promise of psilocybin therapy as a tool to help patients overcome the distress that comes with a cancer diagnosis, and the impact that this has on him personally, as well as on his patients and their families.

In this episode, Grammy-award nominated singer, New York Times bestselling author and mental health advocate, Jewel, talks about how she overcame her own mental health challenges as a teenager, how she maintains her mental wellbeing today and how she supports young people with mental health challenges through her Inspiring Children Foundation.

In this episode we speak about the huge increase in mental health difficulties since the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of opening up conversations to raise awareness and improve care. George Goldsmith, CEO and Co-founder of COMPASS is joined by Sir Norman Lamb, Chair of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Chairman of the Children's and Young People's Mental Health Coalition, a mental health campaigner, a Member of UK Parliament (MP) for 18 years, and a former UK government health minister.

George Goldsmith, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of COMPASS Pathways introduces our new podcast series. We are facing a global mental health care crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this. Mental health care today works for some people but is not good enough for far too many. And yet there is still a stigma around talking about mental health. But when it comes to mental health, everyone has a story - whether that’s about themselves, a family member, a friend or colleague. In this podcast series, we’re going to speak to people about their mental health stories. We want to talk about the issues in mental health care and explore how we can improve the patient experience and ease suffering. Our first guests include Sir Norman Lamb – mental health campaigner and Chair of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, and Jewel - singer-songwriter and mental health advocate. We hope to inspire, inform and provoke discussion, as our guests share their stories and ideas. Please do follow us on your favourite podcast app to ensure you don’t miss episode one.