For over three decades, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights has worked to expose abuses in the field of mental health and assist in the passing of legislation to protect citizens from these abuses.
CLEARWATER, FL, July 03, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — The Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is celebrating 36 years as a mental health watchdog this year and will be holding the Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, July 12th at the historic Fort Harrison in downtown Clearwater.
Due to the dedication of the initial members, what began as a volunteer activity in 1977 is now an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to the protection of children and families from abuse in the field of mental health.
By 1989, CCHR Florida had become a formal chapter having grown from a small group of advocates into a statewide movement that helps to create positive change while raising awareness on mental health human rights.
Over the past 36 years, CCHR has created a track record of not only educating Floridians on their rights under the mental health law but also as an organization that actively protects citizens against psychiatric abuses helping to pass more than 50 laws reforming the mental health law. CCHR’s campaign to protect children from illegal Baker Acting— a statewide crisis that resulted in over 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 eleven 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 1,800 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.
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