CLEARWATER Fla., June 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog organization co-founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, announced that in 2017 they helped secure the safe release of some 300 people being unjustly held for involuntary psychiatric examination.  CCHR Florida maintains a hotline for Baker Act abuses.

“Every day in Florida someone is held for involuntary psychiatric examination [Baker Act] for the scantiest of reasons,” said Stephen A. Talmadge, PhD and a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Psychology.

The Baker Act mental health law allows Florida citizens, including children, to be sent against their will for involuntary examination at psychiatric wards known as Baker Act Receiving Facilities and held for up to 72 hours during which time they may be drugged without their consent. [1] In the 2015-2016 annual period over 194,000 people were Baker Acted, of which more than 32,000 were children, a doubling since 2001. Hospitalizations of children are sometimes used as stop-gaps for school systems or parents unable to care for difficult children. [2]

An article on Baker Act violations has prompted a stream of intermittent responses over a 5-year period. One such entry stated, “I’m covered in bruises, was given multiple injections without my consent, and all of this to be told that ‘actually, you don’t fit the criteria to be Baker Acted; we’re releasing you’. [3]

“Our Psychiatric Abuse Hotline averages almost 80 calls a month from people calling about a friend or loved one who has been Baker Acted and unfortunately all too often the victim did not meet the criteria under the law and should not have been taken into custody and sent to a psychiatric facility,” said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida. CCHR Florida Hotline help is available at (727) 442-8820.

About CCHR:  CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, “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.’” For more information visit, www.cchrflorida.org 

Sources:

[1] Locked in hospital, woman caught in Baker Act fight www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article31483943.html
[2] Florida’s Baker Act is overused, inefficient and inadequate http://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2015-11-06/story/floridas-baker-act-overused-inefficient-and-inadequate
[3] FLORIDA’S BAKER ACT IS A DANGER TO ALL http://www.cchrflorida.org/floridas-baker-act-is-a-danger-to-all/

Media Contact:
Diane Stein
President, CCHR Florida
727-442-8820
diane@cchrflorida.org
www.cchrflorida.org

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