It’s World Mental Health Day. And this year, U.S. policy changes are quietly making therapy, medications, and crisis lines harder to reach. The treatment of mental health/mental illness is more in peril than ever before. I, of course, am talking about the changes that the Republican administration has made in the United States. Donald Trump wouldn’t know mental health if it sat on his lap and started to wiggle, and while that’s bad, what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing is even worse because it is actively working to harm people with mental illness. For World Mental Health Day, let’s go back to the facts around mental health and mental illness to fight the anti-science changes being rolled out in the United States.

What Changed in U.S. Mental-Health Policy (2025)

There are a whole host of things that the Republicans have said and done that deleteriously affect people with mental illnesses. Here are just a few of the legislation changes that will be hurting us.

  1. Mental-health parity rule: enforcement paused — The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury announced they will not enforce the new 2024 MHPAEA parity rules (which tightened insurer oversight) while they reconsider them amid an industry lawsuit — and for 18 months after the case ends. Weaker enforcement makes it easier for insurers to keep non-quantitative limits (e.g., prior authorization, narrow networks) that restrict access to therapy, psychiatric visits, and substance use care. This means more denials and delays.
  2. 988 LGBTQ+ youth services removed — Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) ended the 988 Lifeline’s specialized LGBTQ+ youth services in July 2025; the FY2026 budget proposal eliminates that funding line. LGBTQ+ youth have elevated suicide risk; removing a tailored access point is expected to reduce help-seeking and strain general lines.
  3. Cuts and reprioritization of behavioral-health grants — The administration’s FY2026 budget proposes deep cuts to SAMHSA mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) grants, and SAMHSA signaled de-prioritizing harm-reduction/safe-consumption efforts in its grantmaking. Community providers rely on these funds; reductions are expected to close programs, lengthen waitlists, and raise overdose and suicide risks.
  4. Federal support ended for SOAR disability-benefits access — HHS terminated federal support for SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) — a small but pivotal program that helped unhoused and mentally ill applicants secure disability income. Without SOAR’s assistance, fewer eligible people with serious mental illness will obtain SSI/SSDI, increasing homelessness and emergency-system costs.
  5. Gun-violence prevention and research pullbacks — Reporting points to cuts/layoffs affecting CDC/NIH/ATF gun-violence prevention efforts and research since early 2025. Reduced prevention and research can undermine suicide-prevention work (over half of U.S. gun deaths are suicides) and community trauma responses.

And that’s in addition to Trump’s ridiculous and unscientific comments about the causes of autism and the impacts of antidepressants.

Autism Claims: Myths vs. Facts

In Short — Autism
Myth: Vaccines/acetaminophen cause autism.
Fact: Leading bodies (CDC/WHO/National Academies) find no causal link; autism has complex genetic and developmental roots.
So what: Scare-talk drives down vaccination and blames pregnant women.
Action: See World Health Organization (WHO) pages here and here.

No, acetaminophen during pregnancy doesn’t cause autism spectrum in offspring. Any suggestion that acetaminophen causes autism is “based on limited, conflicting, and inconsistent science and is premature.” The only thing vaccines do is save the mother’s and maybe the child’s lives. This disinformation works to blame women for the fact that their child has autism spectrum, which brings expectant mothers more stress and anxiety and denies them access to a pain reliever that is safe to use as directed. And no, vaccines don’t cause autism either.

Just like with bipolar disorder, the cause of autism spectrum disorder is not fully understood and likely requires multiple variables, including some genetic factors, to be present to manifest as autism.

Antidepressants and Violence: Sorting Evidence from Rhetoric

The statements and actions made by the Trump Administration about antidepressants might be even worse. They include:

  • Trump ordered a team to scrutinize antidepressants, antipsychotics, and obesity medication in children as potential “threats,” and the HHS Secretary publicly likened stopping SSRIs to being “worse than heroin” (source).
  • The HHS Secretary said antidepressants may have contributed to the Minnesota shooting, without evidence (source).
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened an expert panel on SSRIs and pregnancy, which is a legitamate topic, but scaring women into believing they aren’t safe, isn’t warranted. We clearly know about the dangers of depression during pregnancy and these outweigh any possible concerns over safe antidepressant use.
In Short — Antidepressants
Myth: Antidepressants cause violence.
Fact: There’s no evidence tying antidepressants to mass violence; abrupt stopping raises relapse/withdrawal risk.
So what: Reckless claims push people to quit medication unsafely.
Action: Don’t stop abruptly — talk to your prescriber.

Outrage on World Mental Health Day

This will harm people. This will cause suffering. This will kill people.

All of this is to say that I’m outraged on World Mental Health Day. I knew that the Trump Administration would take the United States backwards when it came to social policies but their embrace of anti-science bullshit has shocked even me. All this administration is doing is demonizing people with mental illness and their families and making it harder for people with mental illness to get treatment. Mental health in the United States is at a crisis point and the Trump Administration just poured gasoline onto the inferno. Every person pushing these lies should be ashamed of themselves and the entire administration should be forced to take a class on science and scientific study because clearly they missed the basics.

Please, please, don’t buy into their lies. Go to medical bodies for information on medical topics. The administration has squandered whatever authority they may have ever had.