Preventing Deaths of Despair
Saving Lives through Advocacy
OUR MISSION
ADVOCACY
Our mission is to prevent deaths of despair by helping to develop and advocate for the policies and legal reforms needed to facilitate safe and affordable access to psychedelic medicine and assisted therapies.
LEADERSHIP
Our team, led by retired Marine three-star Lieutenant General Martin Steele, Lynnette Averill, PhD, and Brett Waters, Esq., brings a strategic, pragmatic, and bipartisan approach to our work.
ACTION
Our work includes drafting legislation, preparing legal briefings and policy proposals, testifying in hearings, educating legislators and government officials, and building broad advocacy coalitions.
FOCUS
Currently, we are focused on establishing MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted therapy expanded access pilot programs for those who cannot afford to wait for FDA approval.
OUR TEAM
We are a team of medical, Veteran mental health, legal, and political advocacy experts united in the common goal of preventing suicide and deaths of despair. We believe that psychedelic medicine and assisted therapies should be safe, affordable, and equitably accessible to all those suffering from mental health and addiction disorders.
Lt Gen Martin Steele, USMC (Ret.)
Brett Waters, Esq.
Lynnette Averill, PhD
Jesse MacLachlan
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER
STATE POLICY & ADVOCACY DIRECTOR
We are connected by the loss of loved ones to suicide or substance use. Reason for Hope was named in memory of Brett’s mom, Sherrie Hope Waters, who died by suicide in 2018. Had access to psychedelic assisted therapy been available, our loved ones might still be with us. And while we are excited for the significant clinical developments being made, without meaningful state and federal policy changes, and without investments in workforce development and infrastructure, these therapies will be largely be inaccessible to the public.
