Alberta
Tranquility and Transformation – ATMA Journey Centre Expands to Costa Rica
From advocacy to relief, the Calgary-based ATMA Journey Centre has had a busy few months. Published on March 8th through Newswire, ATMA announced international expansion, opening a second location for administering legal psychedelic-assisted therapies and other plant medicines in Costa Rica. Thus allowing for the migration and commonality of experiences to be shared with their community across borders.
The new facility, named “Azul Journey Centre” will be situated in an oceanfront property along the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. This location offers the ability to legally administer certain plant medicines that are unavailable to Canadians, such as Ayahuasca, Ibogaine and Huachuma (San Pedro cactus), as well as more common psychedelics and healing modalities. One can only imagine the healing properties of being situated close to the ocean in Costa Rica could offer on their own, let alone a retreat-style therapeutic adventure.
A view of the oceanfront from ATMA Azul Journey Center in Costa Rica. (CNW Group/ATMA Journey Centers Inc)
Noted in the press release, Co-CEO of ATMA, Vu Tran is quoted on his thoughts about the new Costa Rica facility,
“Azul Journey Center in Costa Rica marks the next step of our plans to develop a network of international Journey Centers which will allow us to provide safe and comprehensive access to clients seeking mental health and wellness services that are currently unavailable in Canada.”
As a community grows, so do resources and education. Evident from the team at ATMA Journey Centre and the SYNTAC Institute here in Calgary, since their first patient was exempted and administered psychedelic-assisted therapy on January 1st, they have received hundreds of applications for a Section 56 Exemption.
Noted in the release, Co-CEO of ATMA David Harder expresses his thoughts on their continued work for both the scientific researchers and prospective patients seeking a Section 56 Exemption for alternative care with entheogens:
“…we have received hundreds of applications from Canadians across the country seeking our assistance for them to obtain a Section 56 Exemption. They are desperately seeking support with a range of difficult and debilitating mental health conditions, and Health Canada is simply not keeping pace with the demand or the need that Canadians have for help.”
Recently, ATMA Journey Centre announced the opening of their Calgary-based facility, a 5,000 square foot private wellness centre approximately 2 hours outside of both Calgary and Edmonton. Aptly named “Creekside Journey Centre”, will provide clients with an opportunity to experience a range of healing and transformational modalities as part of multi-day experiences, ceremonies, and retreats.
ATMA Creekside Journey Center in Alberta, Canada’s first psychedelic therapy wellness center (CNW Group/ATMA Journey Centers Inc)
Noted in the February press release, Mr. Harder states that the transformational events that could occur with a client ingesting psychedelics and deep-diving inward are far better suited in a home-style environment rather than a professional health clinic or psychiatric hospital, to which arguably most people with comparable experiences would agree.
“Our philosophy is that these deep inner medicine sessions are not best suited in a clinical appointment where only a few hours are allotted in the midst of a busy day and lifestyle.”
They’re not done yet. Set for May 11th, 2021, the event management company “Catalyst Presents” is hosting the world’s largest online psychedelic conference in the world. The event brings together researchers, mental health practitioners, regulators and an array of thought leaders in the space.
Speaking at the event will be renowned psychedelic researchers and top scholars in the scientific community involved in this new form of treatment. The event will host noted speakers such as Paul Stamets, Dr. Rick Doblin, Dr. Julie Holland, Dr. David E. Nichols and ATMA’s very own Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ravi Bains.
In association with the Canadian Psychedelic Association, the Catalyst Summit 2021 will offer both avid researchers and strangers an opportunity to understand where we are in this realm. Learn more by visiting the conference website here.
If you would like to learn more ATMA Journey Centre Inc, their work to offer alternative treatments to treat mental health in Canada and to follow their international growth, check out their website or via their social media below.
For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary
From the Fraser Institute
On Monday, the Smith government announced that beginning next year it will change the way it funds surgeries in Alberta. This is a big step towards unlocking the ability of Alberta’s health-care system to provide more, better and faster services for the same or possibly fewer dollars.
To understand the significance of this change, you must understand the consequences of the current (and outdated) approach.
Currently, the Alberta government pays a lump sum of money to hospitals each year. Consequently, hospitals perceive patients as a drain on their budgets. From the hospital’s perspective, there’s little financial incentive to serve more patients, operate more efficiently and provide superior quality services.
Consider what would happen if your local grocery store received a giant bag of money each year to feed people. The number of items would quickly decline to whatever was most convenient for the store to provide. (Have a favourite cereal? Too bad.) Store hours would become less convenient for customers, alongside a general decline in overall service. This type of grocery store, like an Alberta hospital, is actually financially better off (that is, it saves money) if you go elsewhere.
The Smith government plans to flip this entire system on its head, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. Instead of handing out bags of money each year to providers, the new system—known as “activity-based funding”—will pay health-care providers for each patient they treat, based on the patient’s particular condition and important factors that may add complexity or cost to their care.
This turns patients from a drain on budgets into a source of additional revenue. The result, as has been demonstrated in other universal health-care systems worldwide, is more services delivered using existing health-care infrastructure, lower wait times, improved quality of care, improved access to medical technologies, and less waste.
In other words, Albertans will receive far better value from their health-care system, which is currently among the most expensive in the world. And relief can’t come soon enough—for example, last year in Alberta the median wait time for orthopedic surgeries including hip and knee replacements was 66.8 weeks.
The naysayers argue this approach will undermine the province’s universal system and hurt patients. But by allowing a spectrum of providers to compete for the delivery of quality care, Alberta will follow the lead of other more successful universal health-care systems in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and create greater accountability for hospitals and other health-care providers. Taxpayers will get a much better picture of what they’re paying for and how much they pay.
Again, Alberta is not exploring an untested policy. Almost every other developed country with universal health care uses some form of “activity-based funding” for hospital and surgical care. And remember, we already spend more on health care than our counterparts in nearly all of these countries yet endure longer wait times and poorer access to services generally, in part because of how we pay for surgical care.
While the devil is always in the details, and while it’s still possible for the Alberta government to get this wrong, Monday’s announcement is a big step in the right direction. A funding model that puts patients first will get Albertans more of the high-quality health care they already pay for in a timelier fashion. And provide to other provinces an example of bold health-care reform.
Nadeem Esmail
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
From the Montreal Economic Institute
Alberta’s move to fund acute care services through activity-based funding follows best practices internationally, points out an MEI researcher following an announcement made by Premier Danielle Smith earlier today.
“For too long, the way hospitals were funded in Alberta incentivized treating fewer patients, contributing to our long wait times,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI. “International experience has shown that, with the proper funding models in place, health systems become more efficient to the benefit of patients.”
Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.
Under the government’s newly proposed funding system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered.
An Economic Note published by the MEI last year showed that Quebec’s gradual adoption of activity-based funding led to higher productivity and lower costs in the province’s health system.
Notably, the province observed that the per-procedure cost of MRIs fell by four per cent as the number of procedures performed increased by 22 per cent.
In the radiology and oncology sector, it observed productivity increases of 26 per cent while procedure costs decreased by seven per cent.
“Being able to perform more surgeries, at lower costs, and within shorter timelines is exactly what Alberta’s patients need, and Premier Smith understands that,” continued Mrs. Wittevrongel. “Today’s announcement is a good first step, and we look forward to seeing a successful roll-out once appropriate funding levels per procedure are set.”
The governments expects to roll-out this new funding model for select procedures starting in 2026.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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