Mental health watch-dog, the Florida chapter of Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), has organized a month-long open house beginning January 2 at its headquarters in downtown Clearwater. It is timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The United Nations General Assembly designated the day to honor the victims of the Nazi era and to encourage the development of programs aimed at preventing another Holocaust.
To promote this purpose, CCHR Florida will tour visitors through its Psychiatry: an Industry of Death museum to educate them on abuses in the mental health system.
CCHR is committed to reforming the Baker Act—the mental health law in Florida. Originally designed to prevent the incarceration of individuals without just cause, it was named after Maxine Baker, a former State Representative from Miami, who stated “In the name of mental health, we deprive them of their most precious possession—liberty.” Sadly, the Baker Act is now the source of human rights violations against adults and children.
A 2015 Annual Report of the Baker Act Data prepared for the Agency for Health Care Administration noted that there were 193,410 involuntary examinations initiated in calendar year 2015 with 32,882 initiated on minors. In Florida, a child may be removed from school grounds and sent for involuntary examination without parental consent or knowledge.
“Our Abuse Case Hotline receives calls every day and unfortunately many of these calls are from the friends and families of individuals who did not meet the criteria for Baker Acting but were still sent to a mental health receiving facility and detained,” said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida.
For more information contact CCHR Florida at 109 N. Fort Harrison Avenue, Clearwater or call 727-442-8820.
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