RFK Jr.’s Mental Health Bait and Switch
The newly anointed HHS secretary is weaponizing legitimate anger at the failures of current psychiatric care to gut public services, abandon poor and disabled people, and expand the police state.
From newrepublic.com
By Eric Reinhart, February 27, 2025
The newly anointed HHS secretary is weaponizing legitimate anger at the failures of current psychiatric care to gut public services, abandon poor and disabled people, and expand the police state.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as secretary of health and human services, alongside President Trump’s executive order launching the “Make America Healthy Again Commission,” or MAHA, signal that the Trump regime intends to radically reshape the nation’s mental health policy. Their agenda presents itself as a critique of the over-medicalization of mental and social distress, calling for an investigation into the supposed “threat” posed by psychiatric medications. By doing so, it purports to challenge psychiatry’s overreliance on pharmaceuticals, in place of addressing the root social and economic causes underlying much of the human suffering known today as mental illness.
At first glance, their mission statement echoes long-standing progressive critiques of psychiatry by the fields known as social and critical psychiatry, which argue that psychiatric diagnoses often obscure the structural causes of suffering—poverty, social isolation, racism, homelessness, and exploitative labor conditions, for example—by reducing them to “brain diseases.” This transformation of social problems into medical diagnoses in turn feeds pharmaceutical profits and pathologizes oppressed groups. Meanwhile, an intense focus on neural networks rather than on human needs for social networks often exacerbates suffering, rather than alleviating it.
As a group of eminent psychiatrists recently observed in The Lancet, over the last two decades, “most metrics reflecting mental ill health have worsened in the USA, despite having more mental health resources per person than almost any other country … this status quo is the real crisis.” Read More
‘Look, There’s Nowhere Else To Go’: Inside California’s Crackdown On Homeless Camps
From calmatters.org
By Marisa Kendall and Katie Anastas, February 27, 2025
It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere else to sleep.
The July ruling in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson upended six years of protections for unhoused people. It was a radical change, and it came as many Californians, from small business owners to Gov. Gavin Newsom, were fed up with regularly seeing tent camps that stretched for blocks, human feces smeared on sidewalks and people injecting drugs in the open. Once the Supreme Court gave the green light, even liberal strongholds such as San Francisco were quick to start removing camps — despite a collective outcry from activists supporting the rights of homeless Californians.
What has that meant for people living outside? Read More
Keeping At-risk Residents From Losing Their Housing Will Be A Key To Solving Homelessness
From latimes.com
By The Times Editorial Board, March 2, 2025
Preventing homelessness is a crucial piece of the puzzle for solving this problem in Los Angeles. It is easier and less costly to keep someone from becoming homeless than it is to help them out of the trauma of homelessness and find them permanent housing.
No one wants to see more people forced into the pain of homelessness. And already there isn’t nearly enough housing for the estimated 75,000 homeless people in L.A. This remains true despite efforts by the county and the city of Los Angeles to help finance the construction or purchase of housing units for homeless individuals and families.
But prevention is not as simple as it sounds. Keeping people in their homes is not as expensive as building or procuring homes for the unhoused, but prevention does require millions of dollars in funding. County officials have said prevention is key, but programs haven’t always gotten the funding they needed. Read More
‘Are You Safe?’ Clubhouse for People with Mental Illness Raced to Aid Members During Hollywood Fire
For Fountain House Members, Helping – And Being Helped – Promoted A Sense Of Safety
From mindsitenews.org
By Eliza Partika, February 28, 2025
As fire erupted in the Hollywood Hills in early January, with flames visible as far away as the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, the leaders of Fountain House Hollywood sprang into action.
Like other clubhouses run by Fountain House, the Hollywood clubhouse is a healing community run by people with serious mental health conditions. Dozens of members of the mental health clubhouse were scattered all over Hollywood when the order for evacuation began, and the most urgent question was: Would Fountain House be able to reach them in time?
The clubhouse’s community partner, Hollywood Forward, rushed to create an emergency provider contact group, making it possible to immediately reach out to all 51 members of Fountain House. Besides relaying the orders to evacuate, callers shared critical resources for rides, food and shelter. Read More
If you or someone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, there are resources available to provide free and confidential support. Call 988 or the Teen Line at 1-800-TLC-TEEN or The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 for LGBTQ young people.
