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Topics: Donald Trump, Health, Mental Health, News, Politics, US News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, Health, Mental Health, News, Politics, US News
After newly sworn-in president Donald Trump signed a controversial new executive order impacting children's access to psychiatric medication this week, a handful of horrified US residents have spoken out.
The Republican leader announced the introduction of a new campaign, titled the 'Make America Healthy Again Commission', yesterday (19 Feb), which would focus on the wellbeing of American children, with a specific focus on mental health and illness.
The commission - which will be chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr (the US Health and Human Services Secretary) - calls for 'drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease'.
It vows to do so by 'assessing the threat that potential over-utilisation of medication', 'certain chemicals', and 'certain other exposures' pose to children.
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78-year-old Trump's new order also pledges to 'assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs'.
The policy states that, in 100 days' time, the new commission must submit a report regarding prescriptions of these such medications.
80 days after that, a strategy which includes recommendations must be filed to the federal government.
As we say, however, Trump's latest campaign hasn't gone down too well with many Americans, with a handful of healthcare professionals having since spoken out against it.
Among them is Dr. Lelach Rave - interim executive director of the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics - who emphasised that mental health and illness medications are often life-saving.
Speaking to The Seattle Times, Dr. Rave explained: "Any parent who has a child who is struggling with depression or anxiety or psychosis, it’s a scary place to be.
"And there’s a lot of harm that goes with having untreated illness."
She continued: "Not that you discount the risks of medications because they’re real as well, but there is real risk with disease."
As per the publication, several other Washington physicians have addressed with the notion that monitoring prescriptions is sound practice, but believe that a federal order could spark division between physicians and their patients.
Speaking about mental health implications directly, Summer Starr, the interim director of Washington’s National Alliance on Mental Illness, also raised her concerns.
"You’d never deny someone cancer treatment," she began. "There isn’t the same level of stigma for that. We’re trying to destigmatize mental health, and this just adds another layer of that."
Starr added that denying children and teenagers initial treatment for mental health and illness could impact their recovery later down the line.
It isn't just medics that have expressed their concerns over the aims of the new commission, with hundreds of social media users also hitting out.
"I have ADHD and OCD. I wouldn't be able to function without medications altering my brain and fixing my imbalances," one confessed on X (formerly Twitter).
Another wrote: "This was one of RFK Jr.’s first orders after being sworn in.
"Just an astonishing denial of science and will cause so much pain to the 45 million Americans facing mental health challenges."
A third slammed: "Literally would not be alive today without my ssri. But that’s probably the point."