The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to shift the standard of care toward prevention and a more holistic approach to mental health.
In a landmark shift in mental health priorities, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday launched an action plan designed to de-emphasize the prescribing of psychiatric drugs, ensure fully informed consent, support patients’ tapering off the drugs, and promote evidenced-based nondrug approaches to mental health.
In announcing HHS’s new direction, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said: “Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications—especially among children. We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach to mental health.”
A stated aim is to curb the prescribing of psychiatric drugs. “Through a multipronged approach including education and outreach, program and policy actions, and research-to-practice efforts, HHS is working to prevent the unnecessary initiation of psychiatric medications and support the tapering and discontinuation for patients not experiencing clinical benefit,” HHS announced.
HHS intends to bring more scrutiny to the harms of psychiatric drugs and the benefits of alternative mental health treatments. “HHS agencies are bringing together their collective expertise and aligning to evaluate prescription patterns for psychiatric medications, their benefits and potential harms, and elevate the role of nonmedication treatments and scalable, evidence-based solutions to improve mental health.”
In a so-called “Dear Colleague Letter” published yesterday to notify mental health providers of this seismic shift in orientation towards mental health treatment, HHS wrote that it was “emphasiz[ing] the importance of ensuring that treatment planning for mental health conditions includes meaningful access to evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions.”
