FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2025

The Committee to Protect Public Mental Health joins national medical, scientific, and public-health organizations in calling for the removal of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK, Jr.) has taken the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), our nation’s lead health agency, the department and key operating divisions have been damaged in ways that directly endanger lives, degrade scientific integrity, and obstruct effective treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.

RFK, Jr. has undermined the public health infrastructure, withdrawn major funding, threatened researchers to withhold science-based publications that are not consistent with the current administrative directives, retaliated against scientists who have publicly spoken out in opposition to his directives, distorted decades of evidence-based science and fundamental health knowledge, fired experts on the vaccine advisory committee replacing them with incompetent and untrained anti-vaccine activists, and promoted fringe ideas and contributed to public confusion—undermining trust in historically well regarded health information and guidance. His actions and leadership have directly worsened the health of the nation.  

1.    RFK, Jr.’s actions greatly weaken the ability of the federal government to respond to the crisis of worsening mental health and substance use disorders.   

In his restructuring of HHS, he has attempted to eliminate the federal government’s lead agency in this area, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). News reports describe the damage already taking place under his directives, including substantial staffing and budget cuts, firing leadership, eliminating or reducing grants for mental health and overdose prevention programs, and eliminating expert guidance to existing state and local programs.

2.    RFK, Jr. threatens the American public’s access to evidence-based mental health treatments.
Under the guise of reviewing “overprescribing,” RFK, Jr. has led a concerted attack on psychiatric medications, falsely claiming without evidence that their use can lead to violence and are “more addictive than heroin.” His attempts to reduce access to evidence-based treatments–for depression, anxiety, ADHD, peripartum conditions, and more–threaten the health and well-being of children, mothers, and families nationwide. RFK, Jr.’s actions and rhetoric maligning psychiatric medications, which have been shown to have measurable life-changing benefits, unnecessarily increase stigma and establish barriers to those seeking evidence-based care. 

3.    RFK, Jr. promotes proposals to forcibly institutionalize individuals on “wellness farms” for “spiritual realignment.”
While we are concerned about increased rates of homelessness, criminalization and mass forced incarceration would not resolve housing or behavioral-health needs in our communities; they instead displace people and would impose substantial costs, heighten stigma, and divert scarce resources from proven, community-based solutions to both the behavioral-health and affordable-housing crises. 

4.    RFK, Jr.’s failure to address pressing social and structural factors that contribute to poor health and mental health.  
Despite a stated commitment to reducing chronic illness, especially in children, RFK Jr. continues to advance policies that worsen the social determinants of health and are likely to increase the number of youth who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which are among the strongest predictors of lifelong disease and impaired social functioning. These conditions—including poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, access to health and social services, under-resourced schools, and exposure to community violence and abuse—create toxic stress that can alter brain development and are strongly linked to higher rates of depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and other adverse outcomes.

As physicians committed to evidence-based care, we are alarmed by the direction of HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 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. 

 This press release accompanies a letter sent to the congressional committees of jurisdiction in the House and Senate.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health at Committee@ProtectPublicMentalHealth.org.

The Committee to Protect Public Mental Health is an independent group of psychiatrists, which includes former presidents of the American Psychiatric Association; current and former leaders of public mental health agencies; and frontline medical professionals across the United States. Established in early 2025, the Committee was formed to protect our patients and our profession in the face of the current federal administration’s cuts to vital programs, attacks on diversity and inclusion, censorship of scientific integrity and free speech, and extensive efforts to restrict the American public’s access to evidence-based, lifesaving care.