Mental Health Watchdog Reaches More Than 180,000 Through Parental Rights Campaign
As part of a campaign to educate parents on their rights, the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a watchdog organization that exposes abuse in the mental health industry, launched a newly revised website earlier this year as part of a...
Baker Act Reform is Needed in Order to Protect Parental Rights
The number of children being taken into custody for an involuntary psychiatric examination, called a Baker Act, has been steadily climbing across Florida for the past 17 years. And in February of this year, the trauma suffered during a Baker Act and the resultant harm...
Mental Health Watchdog Reaches Over 100,000 in Campaign to Protect Parental Rights
Last month the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida (CCHR), launched a revised website and a campaign designed to help parents understand some of their rights. While parental rights have historically been viewed as fundamental, an erosion of these rights has...
What are Parental Rights?
Even before the current pandemic scare, Florida parents have worried about protecting their children, particularly at school. The fact that children were being regularly taken from school without prior parental notice or agreement for involuntary psychiatric...
Six-year-old Allegedly Forcibly Drugged in Psychiatric Facility: CCHR Demanding Answers
With all the media coverage and outrage over six-year-old Nadia Falk’s forced stay and alleged drugging in a Florida psychiatric facility this February, a deeper question is raised. What is the justification for the psychiatric drugging of children, and especially the...
Baker Act Reform Continues to Leave Parents Out of the Solution
The mental health law in Florida, commonly called the Baker Act, allows for anyone, no matter their age, to be taken into custody for an involuntary psychiatric examination. This includes children and during 2017-2018 there were a staggering 36,078 involuntary...
The Unworkability of Suicide Risk Assessments
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death in young people in the US today and suicide risk assessment is often touted as the answer but experts in the field have repeatedly concluded that there is not any one scale that can predict who will commit suicide to any...
CCHR Calls Involuntary Psychiatric Examination of Children in Florida a Human Rights Abuse
Over the past two weeks there has been a viral reporting of the tragic involuntary psychiatric examination of a 6-year-old girl in Jacksonville, Florida. Called a Baker Act, involuntary psychiatric examination is part of the Florida mental health law and it applies to...
Watchdog Calling for an Investigation into the Baker Acting of Children in Florida
In 2018 an astounding 36,078 involuntary psychiatric examinations were initiated on children in Florida, an almost 19% increase over the past four years. [1] Called a Baker Act, an involuntary examination of a minor allows for a child to be taken into custody and...
Surge in Children on Dangerous Psychiatric Drugs Not Just a U.S. Problem
Today in the United States approximately 7.2 million children between the ages of 0 to 17 are using prescription psychiatric drugs, and almost half of them are on drugs due to being labeled with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This epidemic of...
CCHR Humanitarian Award Presented to Attorney Dedicated to Restoring Human Rights
Attended by hundreds of guests, the 4th Annual Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Humanitarian Awards Banquet once again honored the many dedicated volunteers and supporters of CCHR for their work help restore rights and dignity to the field of mental health....
Justin Drach: Florida-based Attorney Fighting Widespread Abuses in the Psychiatric Industry
Every year hundreds of thousands of people are taken into custody for involuntary psychiatric examination across the state of Florida. Called a Baker Act, the rampant abuse of rights under this law contributes to tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent billing. In a...
Surge in Child Baker Acts Prompts Watchdog to Call for Greater Protection of Children
The mental health law in Florida, commonly called a Baker Act, allows for a person of any age to be taken into custody and transported to a psychiatric facility for examination. During 2018 there were over 200,000 Baker Acts with more than 36,000 of them initiated on...
Multi-Million Dollar Fines Insufficient to Curb Fraud & Patient Sexual Abuse in For-Profit Behavioral Health Industry, CCHR Says
Universal Health Services (UHS), which owns a chain of for-profit psychiatric facilities in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, has agreed to pay $127 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) civil probe into alleged fraud. The settlement is subject to...Contact CCHR Florida
109 N. Fort Harrison Ave.
Clearwater, Florida 33755
Tel: 1-800-782-2878
