Tag: Citizens Commission on Human Rights

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is warning Congress and the public that new legislation to legalize psychedelic drugs for U.S. veterans is a dangerous repeat of history-when defenders of the nation were used as test subjects in unethical psychiatric experiments.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Despite dozens of closures of abusive "troubled teen" programs in behavioral and psychiatric centers, including wilderness camps in recent years, a leading mental health industry watchdog warns that children's lives remain at risk unless stronger laws ban the worst offenders and the secretive youth transport practices that feed them. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) says that while public outrage and media exposure have forced some notorious facilities to close, the underlying problems that enable these abusive programs still persist.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Child and adolescent psychiatrists have issued a policy statement urging broader access to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for children and adolescents despite growing international condemnation of the practice on minors. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Human Rights Office have called for an outright ban on ECT for children. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, condemned the statement as "medically reckless, legally dangerous, and morally indefensible."

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Federal health authorities are sounding the alarm over the chronic use of antipsychotic and psychotropic drugs in America's nursing homes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has prioritized enforcement actions to reduce psychotropic prescribing-especially among seniors with dementia. With over 15,000 facilities nationwide housing more than 1.2 million elderly residents, mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) warns the unchecked drugging of seniors constitutes systemic elder abuse.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- In what is being widely reported as a landmark human rights decision, Italy's Constitutional Court in May 2025 struck down part of the country's decades-old psychiatric law-Article 35 of Law 833/1978-declaring some of its provisions for involuntary detainment unconstitutional. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), based in Los Angeles, hailed the decision as an essential step towards achieving human rights in the mental health field.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- Amid a surge of reported abuse and deaths in psychiatric and behavioral residential programs for youth, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is urging immediate and sweeping federal intervention. CCHR warns that continued inaction by state and federal agencies endangers lives and enables a mental health system where vulnerable children and adolescents are subjected to trauma, neglect, and avoidable harm.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /Florida Newswire - National News/ -- A federal assessment of children's health has identified the widespread prescribing of psychotropic drugs to U.S. youth as a "public crisis" driven by industry profit motives, flawed science, and systemic conflicts of interest. According to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, this is fueling a psychotropic drug market that reaps $22.6 billion annually.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 21, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- A recent exposé in The New York Times Magazine will send shockwaves through the psychiatric community, affirming what the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has warned for decades: there is no medical proof that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a biological disorder.[1] Yet, over 3.4 million American children are labeled with ADHD and prescribed powerful, mind-altering stimulants.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 15, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a leading mental health industry watchdog, has released a damning report detailing how psychiatry is blaming patients-rather than failed treatments-to justify a surge in brain stimulation interventions. "When psychiatric drugs and therapy don't work, psychiatry rarely blames the treatment-it blames the patient, saying they are 'treatment-resistant,'" said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 7, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is sounding the alarm on the unchecked expansion of psychiatric diagnoses-most notably through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). What began in 1952 with just 106 diagnoses exploded to over 300 by 2013, despite a lack of objective biological testing to support these labels. The United States is spending more than ever on mental health - yet outcomes continue to worsen.

ANAHEIM and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 12, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) toured more than a thousand visitors through the Psychiatry an Industry of Death Exhibit in Anaheim, California, as part of its nationwide tour. The exhibit reveals the history and extent of human rights abuse in the field of psychiatry, which continues unabated today.

SEATTLE, Wash., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 4, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Dozens of protesters from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology, marched through Seattle, demanding an end to the widespread drugging of children in Washington state. They cited the dangers posed by psychotropic drugs, many of which carry black-box warnings due to the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, adolescents, and young adults.

EDINBURGH, Scotland, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., June 25, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- The UN and World Health Organization issued mental health guidance in October 2023, but the Royal College of Psychiatry (RCPsych) has still failed to direct members to comply. They have not directed members to cease using ECT (electroconvulsive treatment) and have not demanded an end to involuntary commitment. Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) staged a march through Edinburgh and a protest at the RCPsych annual International Congress, demanding the organization immediately act to protect the human rights and health of the people of the UK.

CANBERRA, Australia, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 23, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Scores of protesters marched on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) Annual Congress in Canberra to demand it end its support of electroshock treatment, psychiatric restraints, forced drugging, and involuntary detainment. The protest was organized by Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology. CCHR demands a complete ban on coercive and dangerous psychiatric practices, citing their harmful effects on the vulnerable.

NEW YORK, N.Y., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 11, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Those seeking help, beware, warns Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog. For Mental Health Awareness Month, the group marched through the streets of New York to raise awareness about coercive mental health practices including forced institutionalization and the use of electroshock (ECT) - even on children. Strategically timed to coincide with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual convention in the city, CCHR also brought its Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit to New York.

NEW YORK, N.Y., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 8, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit," open now through May 9 at 37 Union Square West in Manhattan, is not for the faint of heart. But it provides vital information to avoid or survive coercive psychiatric practices that infringe against human rights. The exhibit, produced by Citizens Commission on Human Rights, shows how these practices put health, safety - even life - at risk.

NEW YORK, N.Y. and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 7, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Midtown Manhattan reverberated with angry voices chanting "Stop the Torture-Ban ECT" as a phalanx of protesters from Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) made their way from Times Square to the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at Jacob Javits Convention Center. Their demands: The American Psychiatric Association must end coercive practices.

BUDAPEST, Hungary, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 2, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- In the aftermath of the UN and World Health Organization guidance directing that psychiatry cease its coercive practices in the field of mental health, the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) Congress in Budapest in April 2024 attempted damage control. Their arrival sparked protest: a march and the launch of an exhibition to expose psychiatric violations, organized by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology.

DIEPSLOOT, South Africa, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 1, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Citizens Commission on Human Rights South Africa brought the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit to Diepsloot, a densely populated township in Gauteng, South Africa. The exhibit, held April 19 to 26, educated officials, business owners, members of African royalty and residents on human rights abuse, racism and harmful practices that pervade psychiatry, including its role in promoting racism.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 22, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- It's no accident that while prescriptions for psychiatric medications have soared, the Los Angeles suicide rate has risen 40 percent since the year 2000 while the county's mental health budget, at nearly $3 billion and rising, is the largest in the United States. Ever wonder why? The answer is not easy to confront. But Angelenos owe it to themselves and their families to visit the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) 'Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit,' which begins its global tour this week in Los Angeles with a grand opening on Friday, March 22 at 1:30 p.m.