Ohio State opens PEACE program to train Ohio workforce in psychedelic crisis care

Ohio State opens PEACE program to train Ohio workforce in psychedelic crisis care

Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education will equip thousands of professionals with psychedelic-informed skills

A new program from the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) in The Ohio State University College of Social Work is helping prepare health care workers and first responders with tools to treat people suffering adverse reactions to psychedelic drugs.

Over the last decade, there has been increased media coverage of the potential benefits of using psychedelic drugs for medicinal and therapeutic purposes. Consequently, there has also been a corresponding rise in unsupervised use of these drugs.

"People have started to learn about the benefits of psychedelics while, at the same time, the federal government categorizes these as controlled substances," said Stacey B. Armstrong, associate director of the CPDRE. "With the promising outcomes of clinical trials, there has been an explosion of information, but the information has been limited in addressing adverse experiences and harm reduction."

With little dosage guidance, supervision or other safety mechanisms in place, users of psychedelics can find themselves in a situation which could be overwhelming, leading to distress, physical strain or emergency intervention. They may then interact with first responders or behavioral health care professionals who want to help them but do not know the best way to do so.

This is where the newly funded Psychedelic Emergency, Acute, and Continuing Education (PEACE) program comes in. The program, developed and administered by CPDRE and funded by a $400,000 SOAR Innovation grant from the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), consists of in-person seminars and online training materials for emergency departments, first responders, law enforcement and behavioral health professionals. Seminars will be held in January, March and July of 2026.

According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the percentage of people aged 12 or older who used hallucinogens in the past year increased from 2.7% (or 7.6 million people) in 2021 to 3.6% (or 10.4 million people).

"We want to arm our first responder and behavioral health workforce with knowledge about how to support someone's challenging psychedelic experience in a way that's going to be helpful, not increase risk or harm," said Armstrong.

"We created the PEACE program to start educating Ohio's front-line workers and support them in facilitating quality care, psychedelic-informed crisis triage and referral guidance to health care providers with specialized training in psychedelic harm reduction."

The program is designed to reach more than 127,000 professionals across disciplines and behavioral health settings, including doctors, nurses, social workers, EMTs, police, psychiatrists and many others. By offering training at no cost, PEACE helps ensure Ohio's workforce has consistent, evidence-based tools to provide safer, more compassionate care in high-stress situations and during behavioral health crises.

"CPDRE is all about access and affordability," said Tina Romanella, CPDRE's program coordinator. "Too much information in this space is inaccessible, unaffordable or inaccurate. Our job is to make it all three: accessible, affordable and accurate."

"We've created this content, but its value depends on reaching the people who need it," said Angela Douglas, CPDRE clinical research coordinator. "With DBH's network and workforce expertise, we're confident we can get this training to every corner of the state. They have extensive connections. Their workforce development and policy leads are actively recruiting and gathering information, so we're talking to the right people to make sure this gets where it needs to go."

For more information, contact [email protected].

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