Rally for Mental Health: Boldly Going Where Psychiatry Has Never Gone Before!

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

The spirit of “Star Trek” was present at our recent American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, the home base of movies and television, “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” That well-known quote is from the opening monologue by Captain Kirk of the original “Star Trek” series on TV. But instead of in outer space, it was just a short walk to a public plaza outside of the convention center where I think history was made.

On the northwest corner of Figueroa and Pico, at high noon on Sunday, May 18, a group of “rapid responders” of psychiatrists and other colleagues, including my wife and I, began a rally of “Psychiatrists for Mental Health for All.” It was not an official APA based rally. Gradually, participants in the rally grew and grew, young and old, with increasing connection to the meeting participants passing by. Various chants built excitement. Probably because my grandkids call me Hey-Hey, my favorite was:

“Hey hey, ho ho

Cuts to mental health have got to go . . .”

The San Fernando Valley News covered it in the May 21 article “Psychiatrists Rally in Los Angeles to Protest Cuts to Federal Mental Health Agency.”¹ Police passed by with nary a concern. Though anti-psychiatrists rallied as usual on Saturday, none seemed around on this day.

You may still wonder: what is the big deal? In conflictual social times like now, rallies of various kinds are common.

However, over my over 55-year career in psychiatry, I do not recall any mass public rally of psychiatrists. This was a first, I think. Yes, there were courageous psychiatrists, especially Robert Jay Liston, who participated in the 1960s and 1970s rallies concerning Civil Rights, Vietnam, and the diagnostic classification of homosexuality. But nothing like this general psychiatrist rally for mental health at a time of developing cuts in already inadequate mental health services and resources.

It was hard to estimate the numbers involved, but perhaps that was not so relevant. The fact that it took place at all was what mattered the most.

I have this fantasy for the future. Perhaps someday a little plaque will be found there marking the date when psychiatrists rallied for mental health for all when it was needed the most, and helped to turn back the threats to our country’s well-being.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

Reference

1. Arizon G. Psychiatrists rally in Los Angeles to protest cuts to federal mental health agency. San Fernando Valley Sun. May 21, 2025. Accessed May 27, 2025. https://sanfernandosun.com/2025/05/21/psychiatrists-rally-in-los-angeles-to-protest-cuts-to-federal-mental-health-agency/