Psychiatrists call for RFK Jr. to be replaced as health secretary

Psychiatrists have joined other public health groups in calling for the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary.

Two psychiatry organizations — the Southern California Psychiatry Society and the recently formed grassroots Committee to Protect Public Mental Health — have released statements saying that the actions of the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services have increased stigma, instilled fear and hurt access to mental health and addiction care.

“As physicians committed to evidence-based care, we are alarmed by the direction of HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr,” the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health said in a statement.

HHS responds

“Secretary Kennedy remains firmly committed to delivering on President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again by dismantling the failed status quo, restoring public trust in health institutions, and ensuring the transparency, accountability, and decision-making power the American people voted for,” Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the federal health department, wrote to NPR in an email.

The Southern California Psychiatry Society represents more than a 1,000 clinicians; the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health has just over 50 members.

In recent years, the federal government had taken a leading role in funding efforts to address serious mental illness and substance use through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administrations (SAMHSA), notes Dr. Steven Sharfstein, a past-president of the American Psychiatric Association and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.

Those efforts had started to pay off, he adds. “There’s been great progress in reducing the number of overdose deaths in the country as a result of these initiatives,” he says.

But the firing of staff at SAMHSA earlier this year, and the Health Secretary’s efforts to shutter the agency, have hurt those efforts, says Sharfstein, who’s also a founding member of the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health.

“RFK Jr. is trying to eliminate the federal agency that is responsible for supporting states and localities with overdose prevention,” says Dr. Eric Rafla-Yuan, a San Diego-based psychiatrist and a member of the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health. “This is exactly opposite of the direction that we need to be going.”

Psychiatric medications questioned

Both the organizations are also concerned about the health secretary’s attacks on psychiatric medications, including in the Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy, which is also known as The MAHA report

The MAHA report “specifically misrepresents the data on psychotropic medications, really ignoring the full body of the scientific literature,” says Dr. Emily Wood, co-chair of the Southern California Psychiatric Association. “And it is calling for various ways to limit access to psychiatric medications, which is extremely disturbing as these are medications that are critical for many individuals with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD and many disorders.”

“This misrepresentation increases stigma, spreads fear, and can keep people from reaching out for help when they need it most,” according to the statement by the Southern California Psychiatric Association. “The report uses these inaccurate statements as a basis for taking action to restrict access to critical services that ease suffering, restore functioning, and prevent suicide.”

Dr. Sharfstein says he’s also concerned about the impact of cuts to Medicaid on people with Serious Mental Illness (SMIs), which includes conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 6% of American adults live with an SMI. Given the debilitating nature of SMIs, patients tend to be poor, explains Sharfstein.

“They can’t afford the medications,” he says, “And Medicaid is what they rely on. But it’s not just medications. It’s outpatient treatment. It’s access to acute inpatient care.”

As cuts to Medicaid roll out, access to care for mental illness and addiction will get increasingly “compromised,” says Sharfstein. “And we’ll see a kind of rolling crisis occur.”

His group is calling on lawmakers to replace Kennedy with someone trained in public health and evidence-based care. “To protect patients, safeguard scientific integrity, and restore public trust, we join our colleagues in calling on the President to remove Secretary Kennedy and appoint a qualified, evidence-driven leader without delay,” according to the statement.