Reimagining Care
Some people spend a lifetime being told they’ve tried everything. Gina Giorgio learned what that felt like at nine years old, when a chronic illness diagnosis introduced her to the limits of conventional care, and to a question that would define her life’s work: What happens to the people traditional treatments don’t work for?
Founder Gina Giorgio was nine years old when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Growing up in a body that fought against her, she learned early how much medicine can offer, and where it still falls short. Conventional treatments managed symptoms but rarely reached the whole person. That gap between managing and truly healing would shape the rest of her life.
Gina was raised in a military family, one that carried the quiet weight of trauma that so often follows service home. She saw firsthand how the people we ask to endure the most are frequently the least served by the options available to them. She grew up experiencing how strength and suffering can live in the same person, and within families, for decades.
Those two truths, a body in pain and a family that knew trauma intimately, drove Gina to look beyond the edges of health care. In that search, she discovered the powerful therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine: not as a last resort, but as a genuine frontier in how we address treatment-resistant conditions. What she found didn’t just change what she believed was possible for herself, it showed her what medicine could offer others still searching.
But when Gina looked across the Carolinas, she saw a void. North Carolina and South Carolina had no one advocating for psychedelic research, access, or policy reform — no organized voice working to bring these breakthroughs to the people who needed them most. The science was advancing. The stories were mounting. And no one was building the bridge. So she decided to build it herself.
Those two truths, a body in pain and a family that knew trauma intimately, drove Gina to look beyond the edges of health care. In that search, she discovered the powerful therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine: not as a last resort, but as a genuine frontier in how we address treatment-resistant conditions. What she found didn’t just change what she believed was possible for herself, it showed her what medicine could offer others still searching.
Carolinas for Care is changing what people believe is possible. As a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to psychedelic-assisted therapies and advancing evidence-informed policy across North and South Carolina, we open new conversations around health care, meet people where they are, and offer hope to those who’ve been told they’ve run out of options. Carolinas for Care stands at the intersection of advocacy, research, education, and healing, working to ensure quality care is within reach.
In 2023, Carolinas For Care helped introduce HB 727, the Breakthrough Therapies Research and Advisory Act, a bipartisan bill focused on supporting clinical research into MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted therapy. The bill proposed two competitive research grants totaling $5.4 million, with a focus on