Reliance on Risk Assessments Questioned as Suicide Awareness Month Ends
September is nationally recognized as Suicide Awareness Month and the stated intention of this campaign is to “inform and engage health professionals and the general public about suicide prevention and warning signs of suicide”. [1] Each year one solution offered up...
Watchdog Calls into Question Reliance on Risk Assessments During Suicide Awareness Month
Each year September is recognized as Suicide Awareness Month with September 6th through the 12th observed as National Suicide Prevention Week. The stated intention of these campaigns is to “inform and engage health professionals and the general public about suicide...
Watchdog Campaign to Restore Parental Rights Reaches Over 370,000
Recognized across the state for helping parents whose children have been taken to a psychiatric facility for involuntary examination under Florida’s mental health law, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) launched a public information campaign earlier this...
Study Reveals that Anxiety, Depression and PTSD may be Adaptive Responses to Adversity Not Mental Disorders
As reported in an article in Forbes titled, Researchers Doubt That Certain Mental Disorders Are Disorders At All, a recent study questioned the validity of labeling depression, anxiety and even ADHD as mental disorders. [1] The researchers in the study based their...
Recent Study Calls Psychological Assessments “Junk Science”
In a campaign to remove the stigma attached to mental illness, advocates have created numerous observance days, weeks and months which is why August is known as “National Health Center Week”. This observance week focuses on treatment and education with the underlying...
Mental Health Month: A Marketing Campaign to Fuel the Psychiatric Industry
Since 1949 the month of May has been touted as Mental Health Month for the stated purpose of educating people on mental health issues. However, the real motive behind this marketing comes into question when messages such as “the 7 biggest parenting mistakes that...
Reliance on Suicide Risk Assessments May Increase Suicide Deaths
Due to COVID-19, mental health advocates are predicting that “suicide is likely to become a more pressing concern as the pandemic spreads and has longer-term effects on the general population, the economy, and vulnerable groups”. One solution being offered up is...
Mental Health Month Marketing Feeds Lucrative Psychiatric Industry
With global sales reaching $76 billion a year, psychiatric treatment is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and according to IMS Health, a company that provides information, services and technology for the healthcare industry, there are over 78 million...
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...
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...
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...
Debunking the Myths Surrounding Suicide Assessments and Suicide Rates
Each year an average of 44,965 people commit suicide in the United States making it the 10th leading cause of death for Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide deaths were more than double those due to homicides in 2015,...
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...Contact CCHR Florida
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