- [Announcer] Your Fantastic Mind brought to you in part by Sarah and Jim Kennedy.

(no audio) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to Your Fantastic Mind.

I'm Jaye Watson.

Tonight, a big update to a big story from last season where we highlighted a trial that showed that minimally invasive surgery to remove brain bleeds and hemorrhagic stroke led to much better outcomes.

The second phase of this trial is underway and we'll tell you all about it.

And instead of arresting people, a new diversion center in Atlanta is providing resources and help instead of incarceration.

Plus, Match Day.

(crowd screaming) One of the biggest days in the future of a doctor's career.

We'll take you inside the exciting celebration at Emory.

Up first tonight, a follow up to a story we told two seasons ago when we featured the first psychedelic trial at Emory for cancer patients who were demoralized.

We followed a young man through the trial.

Well, tonight we check back in with him to see how the experience has shaped his life in the years since.

And we talk to the researchers in this field, which is experiencing a huge resurgence.

- You can take a seat right there.

- So I was involved in the pilot trial for using psilocybin for cancer patients with demoralization and chronic pain.

- [Jaye] When we met 29-year-old Wesley Applebury at the end of 2022, (Wesley sniffling) he had gone through treatment for stage four cancer, Ewing sarcoma, and after that, he had lost his own father to cancer.

Demoralization is common in cancer survivors and can include feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and a loss of meaning in life.

- I cry every day.

It's hard to get any joy out of anything anymore.

It's hard to feel like I belong anywhere.

I guess that's a big part of it.

I really don't feel like I belong.

- Do you have any last questions before we begin?

- [Jaye] Wesley was the first patient in the trial that used psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain mushrooms.

- And cheers, guys.

- [Boadie] I think the psychiatric community is very split.

- [Jaye] Psychiatrist Boadie Dunlop is the Co-Director of the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality.

- This is an important study because we need to establish the safety and the efficacy of the application of psychedelics.

It may be that this is not going to work.

We cannot just assume the answer in science.

We need to build an evidence base.

- Let's take a journey inside of our bodies.

- [Jaye] After multiple assessments and hours of preparation with a psychotherapist and spiritual clinician, Wesley had his experience.

- I guess there's that spark of the divine in me.

I've already got the white light that I need.

That's cool to say out loud.

- [Doctor] Yeah?

- Yeah, you know?

Seeing that like goodness in myself for once.

Maybe the first time.

I think I've always felt it but I've never been able to like get this close to it.

- [Jaye] In his integrative sessions after the psilocybin experience, Wesley talked about the massive shift within him.

- I guess transformative.

You know, I like finally came into myself.

You know, I don't feel broken anymore.

(gentle music) I don't think I ever would've made it out of Milledgeville, Georgia without the psilocybin experience.

I really and truly felt trapped.

(birds chirruping) - [Jaye] Wesley also made a massive shift in the world around him leaving his hometown for Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

- I'm a Columbia scholar, which is one of the highest merit scholarships that the seminary offers.

I'm in the dual master's degree program here at Columbia Theological Seminary, working on Master of Divinity and a Master of Art and Practical Theology with a concentration of pastoral care.

I'm also working on a graduate certificate in intercultural chaplaincy.

I do, I wanna be an oncology chaplain.

- [Jaye] It has been two years since Wesley's psilocybin experience and a lot has changed.

- I was honestly in shock.

I never thought it would happen again.

- [Jaye] His cancer returned in May of 2024.

- Since May 9th, 2024 when my annual PET scan discovered my recurrence of Ewing sarcoma, I've gone through two surgeries, five rounds of chemo, and by November I'll have completed 28 rounds of proton radiation.

(machine whirring) - [Jaye] We were there when Wesley finished his treatment a second time.

- Thank you.

The psilocybin experience really gave me my life back.

It allowed me to feel like I had agency again.

It allowed me to process a lot of the trauma.

It allowed me to reframe a lot of the negative thoughts I had around my dad's death, around my own cancer, and around just a lot of the trauma I had experienced throughout my entire life.

(uplifting music) - [Jaye] Two years after that pilot trial, the results are in.

- We saw many people do better in terms of their demoralization and their management of their pain, but that trial was a pilot trial.

It was to get us going everybody got open label psilocybin.

There was no placebo.

So, any conclusions would be with that in mind, they're tentative, they're to generate data to help us structure proper randomized clinical trial as a next step.

- [Jaye] The Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality has expanded to other psilocybin trials for depression, including treatment-resistant depression, end of life, and postpartum depression.

Psilocybin is being investigated for a vast array of conditions across the country, from depression and mood disorders to addiction, to anxiety and PTSD, to chronic pain and palliative care.

- I've certainly seen a number of patients do quite well on the medicine.

I think I have more expectation that people can improve, but I've also seen some people not do well and actually worsen.

So, where I am today is this treatment really needs a lot more careful investigation and we need to be able to better tailor it to the individuals most likely to benefit versus those who could be harmed.

(uplifting music) - [Jaye] As the research continues and data gathering goes on, Wesley moves forward transformed in ways that research methods are struggling to fully characterize and measure such as those intangible changes in perspective, connectedness, and meaning.

- You know, I've been through a lot the past few years.

I'd be lying if I said it was easy, but this experience has absolutely made my life so much better.

I never could have imagined my life being as good as it is today without the psilocybin experience I had.

(uplifting music) - The enriched trial was nothing short of a global game changer for people who've had hemorrhagic strokes, the most severe and deadly type of stroke.

Well, last season we introduced you to a father whose life was saved by this new minimally invasive approach.

But as is the nature of research, the next phase of this trial is on the way and the goal is for it to save even more lives.

(uptempo music) (somber music) It is the deadliest of strokes impacting almost 3 1/2 million people a year.

51 to 65% of people who experience a hemorrhagic stroke die within the first year, many within the first few days.

Six months after a hemorrhagic stroke, only 20% of patients are expected to be independent.

(tense somber music) - The problem that we face is that intracerebral hemorrhage is a common problem.

It is a very expensive problem and is devastating to the patients that experience it.

And intuitively it seems like it ought to be a surgical problem.

If you have a blood clot in your brain, it must be good to take it out.

(tense somber music) - [Jaye] That's why the ENRICH trial was such a monumental achievement.

Many trials over several decades had successfully evacuated blood from the brain, but the outcomes were not what researchers hoped.

- And those studies showed improvements in survival but not brain function or quality of life.

- So this is the piece of bone we removed.

- [Jaye] The ENRICH trial used a new less invasive approach where surgeons drilled a much smaller hole in the skull carefully navigating around vital brain tissue.

This new technique allow doctors to remove the clot while preserving essential brain connections.

- [Daniel] And the pressure is immediately released to.

- [Jaye] The goal was to minimize damage, speed recovery, and give patients a better shot at regaining their lives.

- [Daniel] So this is a portion of the blood clot.

- [Jaye] They did it.

- So far, so good.

- [Jaye] This married 49-year-old father of twins lived to see his 50th birthday because of ENRICH.

- We demonstrated that patients that got surgery had better outcomes.

They had shorter hospitalizations and the cost of their care was less.

It was a trifecta, if you will.

We hit a home run a grand slam.

(machine beeping) - [Jaye] The ENRICH trial focused on hemorrhagic strokes in the lobar region of the brain.

- The lobes of the brain are the frontal lobes, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe.

- [Jaye] The next study using this same surgical approach is focused on hemorrhagic strokes in deeper parts of the brain.

- We're gonna be conducting a new study that is called REACH and that is Rapid Evacuation And Access of Cerebral Hemorrhage.

It's gonna be 600 patients that we're gonna study in 60 hospitals across North America.

- [Jaye] 50 to 70% of hemorrhages happen in those deeper areas of the brain and the people who have them tend to be younger than those who have hemorrhagic strokes closer to the brain surface.

- One of the key things why we also wanna do this is because superficial or lobar hemorrhages, they occur in older patients.

The average age in our study for lobar hemorrhages was about 67.

Deep hemorrhages happen to younger patients.

They tend to affect people in an average age of 47.

It hits them at the most productive time of their life.

So, in that sense, we have an even greater potential for impact in terms of disability that we can avoid for patients that can return to many, many years of highly productive lives.

- [Jaye] The Marcus Foundation gave a $26 million grant to fund the REACH trial.

- The funding has come from the Marcus Foundation.

The late Bernie Marcus was very philanthropic, did a lot for the city of Atlanta, has done an enormous amount for medical care.

- [Jaye] The Marcus Foundation has also funded a national registry, the largest in the world for intracerebral hemorrhage patients.

It will collect real world data from 1,800 patients at hospitals across the country so doctors understand how this technique works outside of a controlled study.

- How the surgery performs in the real world outside of the context of a clinical trial is something that we also want to understand because it helps us refine the procedure, make it better, make it faster, broaden its reach and its adoption by other centers.

And this registry is gonna let us do that.

- The study is getting underway in 2025 and will run for four years.

A high percentage of incarcerated people have a history of substance use disorders or mental health issues.

It's estimated 15 to 25% of people in jail have been homeless at some point.

Today, we take you inside a new diversion center in Atlanta, one of a handful in the country that gives law enforcement another option to arrest.

It's taking them somewhere they can receive help and access to resources they need.

- We wanted to make sure that we were creating an environment that was welcoming and engaging.

Not to come.

- [Jaye] Karen Sutton is giving a tour in the days before it will open.

- Come up these steps, people will buzz them in.

This is considered the quiet area, so let's- - [Jaye] Sutton is the director of the Center for Diversion and Services, which will hopefully change the incarceration landscape in metro Atlanta.

- Anyone who comes here on a current on a charge is completely diverted, but when they leave here, they're not leaving with a charge.

(attendees clapping) - [Jaye] It was two years ago that Atlanta's Mayor Andre Dickens, along with law enforcement and local leaders.

(hammer thuds) - [Attendee] There we go.

Yeah!

- [Jaye] Broke ground, so to speak, on the center, which was an unused separate space in the city's detention center.

The goal was to tackle an issue that plagues local jails around the country.

They are filled with people who are not dangerous criminals but who are struggling with mental health, homelessness, or substance use.

Many are repeatedly arrested for minor offenses like trespassing, loitering, shoplifting, or public intoxication.

Things that are symptoms of bigger, unaddressed quality of life issues.

Jails can worsen these issues instead of solving them.

- We used to have a singular blunt instrument.

911, a PD arrives, what's the problem?

And that's the word that was used.

There's this homeless gag.

This person is panhandling.

There's someone asleep behind my convenience store.

And the police would do what they were trained to do, put on the handcuffs and take them to the only place they could take them, which is the county jail.

- [Jaye] Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.

Co-chairs the Justice Policy Board which oversees the center.

A partnership between the city of Atlanta, Fulton County, Grady Health System, Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative and Georgia Justice Project.

- The Diversion center is a 24-hour, seven-day a week pre-arrest diversion drop off center for law enforcement.

Which means this is a center that is only going to be utilized by law enforcement officers.

So, here we also have additional officers.

- [Jaye] Instead of arresting people for non-violent offenses, law enforcement can bring them to the center.

People who come here are not charged with a crime and are referred to as guests and are greeted by certified peer specialists who have similar lived experience.

They will have onsite access to an intake screening, a needs assessment, as well as mental health and substance use support.

There are places to shower, wash their clothes, and get a hot meal.

There's also assistance with housing and other essential social supports to move their lives forward.

It's a respite from their challenges where they are treated with dignity and respect.

- Jails have really become like defacto behavioral health centers because of these issues accompanied with the charge, jail is where this population tends to end up and needs are not met there.

And what we also know is with this particular population that we are targeting, they linger in jail twice as long as someone else who may be facing the same charge.

- Yeah, it's pretty cool.

They have a lot of decent people there.

It reminded me of like safety.

I guess being saved and having that option like an alternative.

- [Jaye] Alexandria Seely and Trindalin Browning were the women Sutton toured through the center.

- Yeah, it just would've been different.

It would've been, that would've been a lot easier.

- [Jaye] Put in foster care in third grade, Seely aged out and was arrested 10 times over a number of years for shoplifting clothing and food.

She wound up being sentenced to five years in prison and served one year.

- And I was like, I need, I definitely need, I need to like figure out how I'm gonna get money without going to jail.

That was the hardest part.

And where do I start?

What does it look like?

I didn't really have examples around me of being incarcerated and life after.

- You get emotional, I get emotional too.

- I get emotional.

- [Jaye] Seely, who says she struggled with mental health issues growing up, was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

- All right.

- [Jaye] She's now the social media and engagement coordinator for Women on the Rise, a nonprofit led by formerly incarcerated women of color.

Women on the Rise focuses on advocacy and support for women impacted by the criminal legal system.

- I told my employer what I had done and he decided to press charges.

- [Jaye] Trindalin Browning was arrested for theft at her workplace.

- I actually served a year at Whitworth Women's Facility.

I was sentenced to a year, served six months.

So I came home Thanksgiving day of 2022.

- [Jaye] Browning has received treatment for depression and now works at Women on the Rise.

- [Trindalin] I am the lead reentry specialist.

- [Karen] So now we're passing through what we would call the cafe.

- [Jaye] So when Browning and Seely were given a tour of the Center for Diversion and Services, they saw firsthand what had never been offered to them.

- I think it could have saved me a lot of embarrassment, headache now to be diverted completely from the judicial system and to be, not just to be diverted from the judicial system, but to have a guided plan back to your normal.

- It gives people a chance.

Provides hope.

(melancholic music) - [Jaye] Grady Health System is the operator of the center and the goal is to decrease bookings at the jail and to connect people to resources.

It's much costlier to incarcerate someone than it is to offer meaningful help.

Diversion programs are growing across the country, reducing recidivism rates and showing success by connecting people to resources that make a difference.

- We know that this particular population, people tend to shy away, don't engage in direct eye contact, make all kind of assumptions, and they clearly feel unwelcomed in many environments.

And so, we know that with the right degree of engagement, we know that change is possible.

We are innovative, we're person centered.

We're engaging with guests where they are.

We're not just hopeful.

We know that this is gonna work.

(melancholic music) - And finally tonight, it is a synchronized nationwide event that happens at the same time across the country.

On the third Friday of March every year.

At exactly noon eastern time, medical students at schools nationwide open their envelopes to see where they are finishing their training.

We take you inside the highly competitive, wildly exciting celebration that is Match Day at Emory University.

(crowd chattering) That cluster of white jackets under the big tent, they're the medical students.

All the people gathered around that tent on Emory's Woodruff Circle are the parents, faculty, and friends.

- I just hope to go somewhere fun.

(group screaming) - [Jaye] This is it.

- But don't ask me 'cause I can cry.

- I'm matching internal medicine.

- Family medicine.

- [Jaye] A culmination of years of work, stress, and hope.

- Wow, it is not Match Day.

- [Jaye] The moment is approaching when these medical students will learn, where they will do their residencies.

- So, I know that you've worked hard and we will continue to work hard.

I look out at you and I see our future and the future is bright.

- [Host] One, two, cap, one, two.

- [Jaye] You come two on the third Friday of March at precisely noon Eastern time in every corner of the country.

Thousands of students and the people who love them get the news.

Since 1952, this is the way it's been done.

These students applied to residency programs months ago, going through a grueling interview process, then listing their rank choices.

The places they interview do the same.

Then the National Resident Matching Program matches the two sides in a process designed to be fair and efficient so as many applicants as possible land in a program that fits them.

- [Host] 10.

- [Jaye] The result, a nationally synchronized emotional milestone.

In one envelope the next chapter begins.

- [Crowd] Two, one.

(screaming) - (screaming) Georgia!

(crowd cheering) - We're going to Vanderbilt.

- I'm going home, I'm going home.

- [Resident] I'm going to Cedar Sinai.

- Man, thank you.

- That's a little one.

- We got Stanford.

- I'm going to Maine.

- She's going to Maine, I'm going to Colorado.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes.

(residents cheering) - Staying here at Emory.

- Morehouse Internal Medicine.

- I am going to Emory.

I'm staying here.

- I'm Sydney and I'm going the University of Chicago for emergency medicine.

(screams) - I'm going into Yale's Primary Care Program, internal medicine.

- Washington.

- Washington, okay, okay.

- This past week I've just had a lot of gratitude for the life I've built here.

- It feels like the night before a big game.

I mean, that's like the best analogy I can come up with 'cause you're just like, you're so excited and there's nothing you can do until it happens.

- Maine.

- Yay.

Oh, yay.

- [Jaye] Kristen Zeka's family came bearing giant buttons with the face of her dog on them.

- Hey!

- [Jaye] From Emory's Class of 2025, 137 students matched into residency programs in 29 states with 51 spending all or part of their residencies in Georgia and 47 staying at Emory.

29 of these students are doing residencies in internal medicine.

15 in surgery, 14 in pediatrics.

The list is long.

Obstetrics, gynecology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, dermatology, family medicine, internal medicine, neurological surgery, neurology, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, physical medicine and rehab, radiology diagnostic.

So many areas of expertise geared to serving people who will need them.

- [Host And Crowd] Three, two, one.

- Match Day's more than a tradition.

It's a rite of passage and for the future of medicine, a critical piece of the journey.

(crowd chattering) And that's gonna do it for us this week.

See you next time on Your Fantastic Mind.

(uptempo music) (uptempo music continues) - [Announcer] Your Fantastic Mind brought to you in part by Sarah and Jim Kennedy.

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