1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I need you to oppose Secretary Kennedy's plan to restrict access to psychiatric medications. This initiative threatens lifesaving treatment for millions of Americans who depend on antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs to function. Depression is the world's leading cause of disability. Suicide rates rose 35% between 2000 and 2018. Only 40% of adults and adolescents with depression currently receive counseling or therapy. The problem isn't overprescribing. It's that too many people can't access mental healthcare at all. Workforce shortages, limited psychiatric beds, and barriers to treatment already prevent people from getting help. Kennedy's plan will make this worse. Dr. Jonathan Alpert from Montefiore Medical Center warns that psychiatric medications are lifesaving in many instances, similar to antibiotics or diabetes medications. About a third of US adults with depression don't benefit from conventional treatments and need access to multiple options. The American Psychiatric Association president calls Kennedy's framing of mental health as primarily an overmedicalization problem an oversimplification of complex issues. This administration needs to expand access to mental healthcare, not create barriers to FDA-approved medications that work. Block this plan and protect treatment access for people who need it.