CCHR: Protecting Mental Health Human Rights in Florida for 35 Years

May 30, 2024 at 03:01 AM EDT

CLEARWATER, FL, May 29, 2024 — The Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is celebrating 35 years as a mental health watchdog this year and will be holding the Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, June, 1st at the historic Fort Harrison in downtown Clearwater.

Starting out as a simple volunteer activity in 1977, CCHR Florida is an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to the protection of children and families from abuses in the field of mental health.

By 1989, CCHR Florida had become a formal chapter having grown from a handful of advocates into a statewide movement that has helped to create positive change while raising awareness on mental health human rights.

Over the past 35 years, CCHR has created a track record of being one of the only non-profit resources that both educates and actively protects citizens against psychiatric abuses helping to pass 50 laws that reform the mental health law. As an example, the campaign to protect children from illegal Baker Acting- a statewide crisis that resulted in almost 36,000 involuntary psychiatric examinations initiated on children during 2019-2020-reached millions of families and in 2021 Florida law was amended to require parental notification before Baker Acting a child.

Winner of eight awards, including the coveted Platinum Award, for their work in mental health human rights, today CCHR consists of thousands of members across the state and has helped to secure the safe release of over 1,700 people from unjust Baker Acts since 2015.

For more information about the event, CCHR or to report psychiatric abuse, please visit the Center at 109 N. Fort Harrison Ave, Clearwater, FL or call 800-782-2878.

About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health. The Florida chapter of CCHR is an award-winning nonprofit in the area of mental health human rights and government relations. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,'” he wrote in March 1969.

Media Contact:

Diane Stein

President, CCHR Florida

727-442-8820

diane@cchrflorida.org

www.cchrflorida.org

Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida