The New Bethlehem. Not like the Old Bedlam
Medical
The UK NHS, Compass Pathways and King’s College promise a ‘beacon for mental health treatment’ in South London
South London architecture collective Resolve
Compass Pathways are partnering with the UK’s National Health Service and King’s College London – at the once-notorious ‘Bedlam’ asylum in London.
Plants to treat over 650 NHS patients with Compass’ Comp360 psilocybin-based treatment plan include a new facility amongst 200-acre woodland.
Mired in scandal back in the 1700s for making a tourist attraction of inmates St Mary Bethlehem Hospital has actually moved site at least once and is now in un-psychedelic Croydon. It’s run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), the largest mental health trust in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Research will be conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology at Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s, which was founded in the 12th Century and has partnered with Compass since 2007.
It’s the first of its kind for the UK state healthcare system that’s under siege from the demographic time bomb and mental health epidemic.
“It will be a centre of excellence for new therapies that don’t always involve psychedelic drugs but also the key therapy that goes along with it” says Professor Allan Young from IoPPN.
“The focus is on people who use mental health services day to day, developing effective new medicine for patients with depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental health issues,” says NHS exec David Bradley.
No news yet on who will be designing this New Esalen but South London’s Resolve must be high on the shortlist.
London-based Compass has come out swinging in 2022, taking on autism alongside the NHS with its, er PSILAUT program and fighting off off a challenge to Comp360 by Freedom to Operate, whose founding legal eagle Carey Turnbull said, “We are confident that the PTAB's extremely narrow interpretation of Compass's patent claims will provide generic manufacturers of psilocybin with wide latitude to produce and commercialise psilocybin without risk of violating the Compass patents.” So everybody’s happy… for now.