By Claudia Arcabascio
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) was founded in 1969 to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights and to clean up the mental health industry. From a single office, it has grown into a powerful international human rights advocacy network of 250 chapters across 34 nations and today it is the leading international watchdog for mental health.
The Florida chapter of CCHR was established in 1989 and plays a vital role in the state’s fight against psychiatric abuse. After discovering that 55 percent of foster children in Florida had been prescribed powerful mind-altering psychotropic drugs, the CCHR documented the abuse with the health department—leading to a 75 percent reduction in prescriptions for children under six.
Headquartered in downtown Clearwater, CCHR Florida educates citizens on their rights under the mental health law, on the adverse effects of psychiatric drugs and on alternative solutions in cooperation with attorneys, doctors and other professionals who provide regular seminars and workshops free of charge.
Since 2015, CCHR Florida has provided almost 600,000 booklets, DVDs and information pamphlets at over 500 events across the state. The chapter also operates a 1-800 hotline for people who need help dealing with unjust involuntary psychiatric examinations, called a Baker Act, and have logged almost 4,000 calls over the past 5 years.
Many of these calls involve the Baker Acting of children which made recent national news when a 6-year-old girl was taken into custody at her school in February. Almost a month after this incident, media across the world is continuing to report on Florida and the fact that the mental health law is being abused and parental rights are in jeopardy.
The Florida mental health law allows for the “willing help of family or friends” to help a person in crisis, including a child, yet parents are not being contacted prior to a Baker Act and are not being given the opportunity to help their child.
According to the Baker Act Reporting Center there were over 36,000 involuntary psychiatric examinations of children during 2017/2018 which is the most recent data available.
CCHR Florida has been on a campaign to end the abusive use of the Baker Act and has worked with the state legislature to provide for parental notification when a child is removed from school under the mental health law as well as to reduce the initial examination period from 72 hours to 12 hours.
The chapter has also worked with law enforcement across the state to enact internally policy adoptions that involve a parent in the process before a Baker Act is initiated on child resulting in numerous Sheriff Offices and Police Departments changing how they handle the involuntary examination of a child.
In 2017 a task force was created, something CCHR had been demanding for years, due to concern in the dramatic increase of Baker Acts involving children since 2002. Among the recommendations made by this task force was “increasing parental/family involvement” yet this recommendation has not been put into effect despite it being made known during by the task force that an estimated 30% of the children being Baker Acted in Pinellas County alone did not meet the criteria.
As a nonprofit organization, CCHR Florida offers all of their workshops, seminars, informational materials and help free of charge and has volunteers across the state who work in their communities to help end mental health human rights abuses.
Anyone interested in learning more about CCHR or in finding out how the can help are encouraged to call 1-800-782-2878.
