A staggering 37,882 involuntary psychiatric examinations of children have been initiated across the state, according to the Baker Act Reporting Center.

Involuntary examinations are initiated in children without parental knowledge. Parents find out after their child is Baker Acted.

The Florida Chapter of the CCHR is a nonprofit mental health watchdog dedicated to protecting children.

The Mental Health Act currently provides that individuals of all ages, including children, be detained and sent for an involuntary psychiatric evaluation.

In 2018/2019, over 37,000 involuntary investigations, known as the Baker Act, were initiated on children in Florida.

A parent’s basic right to help their child is ignored, even though provision is made for the parent to do so. “

– Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, December 16, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ – According to a report released this week by the Baker Act Reporting Center, over 210,000 involuntary psychiatric exams and more than 37,000 were initiated in Florida in the 2018/2019 period of these initiations concerned children. [1]

Florida mental health law, commonly known as the Baker Act, allows individuals of any age to be sent to psychiatric wards known as the Baker Act Receiving Facilities for involuntary screening against their will and held for up to 72 hours. This law has never been intended for children, as reported by the WFSU. Every day, “about 100 children are involuntarily enrolled in psychiatric evaluation under the state’s Baker Act.” [2]

The number of children Baker Acted has grown steadily over the past 17 years, and the trauma and harm it has suffered to children and their families, have become the subject of extensive media coverage on local, national and international news. [3,4,5,6]

That dramatic increase points to abuse, says the Citizens Commission for Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog that investigates and exposes human rights abuses in the mental health industry.

The story of a 6-year-old girl sent to Jacksonville for an involuntary psychiatric evaluation earlier this year because of an alleged tantrum underscores the abuse of this law. [7]

“Unfortunately, what happened to this little girl is not an isolated incident,” said Diane Stein, president of CCHR Florida. “Improper bakeries by children in Florida have been practiced for decades.”

This increased reporting could be a reason why Florida lawmakers have billed bills in the past three years to protect children from abuse under the Baker Act. These bills, designed to give parents the right to protect their children from the trauma of a Baker Act incident, never made it into law, among other things.

Under current law, a parent does not need to be notified before their child is taken out of school, often in a police vehicle and sometimes handcuffed, for an involuntary psychiatric examination. However, the law allows a person in a crisis to be assisted by “willing family members or friends”. Unfortunately, this sensible approach to reducing the number of unnecessary child Baker Acts has been repeatedly ignored and removed from legislative solutions to the problem. [8]

The solution, according to CCHR, is to involve parents, guardians, and caregivers in the process. CCHR believes that parents should be given the opportunity to help their child prior to the introduction of a Baker Act and that less restrictive alternatives should be excluded as a first measure.

However, this does not happen. Instead, children are detained and taken to mental health facilities without their parents, guardians or caregivers knowing that the child has been removed from school premises.

“Giving parents the opportunity to help their child would not prevent emergency care from being provided where necessary,” Stein said. “Just like in the case of a child who is injured and needs immediate medical attention, a child would receive the same help in a crisis.”

One obstacle to this change seems to be the false assumption that the existing law already covers notifying parents. However, this notification will only come after a Baker Act is instituted and the child must be taken into custody and transferred to a mental health department. In other words, under applicable law, notification is too late for parents to take effective action to help their child.

Misunderstandings related to the Baker Act are widespread and have prompted the CCHR to launch an awareness campaign to educate families about their rights under the Mental Health Act. Through the use of free workshops, seminars, and mailings, CCHR has educated hundreds of thousands of families across Florida and vowed to continue to urge lawmakers to amend the law to require parents to be notified prior to the introduction of a Baker Act for a child . For more information about the Baker Act, your parenting rights, or to report abuse, please call 800-782-2878.

About CCHR: The CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz and has set itself the goal of eliminating abuses committed under the guise of mental health and taking patient and consumer protection measures. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard first made public psychiatric imprisonment: “Thousands upon thousands are confiscated without trial every week because the ‘free world’ is being tortured, castrated and killed. All in the name of “mental health,” he wrote in March 1969. For more information, visit www.cchrflorida.org.

Swell:
[1] Baker Act Report
https://www.usf.edu/cbcs/baker-act/documents/ba_usf_annual_report_2018_2019.pdf
[2] Dedicated: Florida’s children victims of a dysfunctional Baker Act system https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2020-12-14/committed-floridas-children-caught-up-in-dysfunctional-baker – Act system
[3] The Baker Act, Florida Mental Health Act Annual Report 2016/2017, published June 2018 – Prepared by the Baker Act Reporting Center for the Florida Department of Children and Families
https://www.usf.edu/cbcs/baker-act/documents/ba_usf_annual_report_2017_2018.pdf
[4] 6-year-old Florida girl “traumatized” after being involuntarily sent to a mental health facility https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-baker-act-6-year-old-girl-sent-to-mental – Health facility after school /
[5] Woman upset after Officer Baker Acted 9 year old son http://www.wftv.com/news/local/woman-upset-after-officer-baker-acted-9-year-old-s/107160305
[6] Florida’s flawed Baker Act knocks thousands of children out of school https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2019/12/10/floridas-flawed-baker-act-rips-thousands-of-kids-from-school /
[7] The Jacksonville mother was upset that her 6-year-old was being sent to a mental hospital
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jacksonville-mom-special-needs-child-put-handcuffs-taken-mental-facility/KKBSVFTZEREALNSVWJMPI5VB7E/?fbclid=IwAR1YF8505cNTl6LcLUgUcUcUc
Mom wants answers after saying the 6 year old was admitted to a mental health facility at Duval School
https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20200210/mother-wants-answers-after-she-says-6-year-old-in-duval-school-ordered-to-mental-health-facility
Mother wants answers after 6-year-old daughter was involuntarily engaged in school
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/02/10/mother-wants-answers-after-6-year-old-daughter-was-infreiwillig-committed-at-school/
Jacksonville girl taken to mental health center, mother wants answers
https://www.newsbreak.com/florida/jacksonville/news/1506842208264/jacksonville-girl-taken-to-mental-health-center-mother-wants-answers
Mom wants answers after saying the 6 year old was admitted to a mental health facility at Duval School
https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20200210/mother-wants-answers-after-she-says-6-year-old-in-duval-school-ordered-to-mental-health-facility
The Florida mom wants answers after she says the 6-year-old was admitted to a mental health facility after a tantrum.
https://www.theledger.com/news/20200211/florida-mother-wants-answers-after-she-says-6-year-old-ordered-to-mental-health-facility-following-temper-tantrum
The Florida mom wants answers after she says the 6-year-old was admitted to a mental health facility after a tantrum.
https://www.newschief.com/news/20200211/florida-mother-wants-answers-after-she-says-6-year-old-ordered-to-mental-health-facility-following-temper-tantrum
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/publichealth/84814
[8] Criteria for involuntary testing in Florida http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0300-0399/0394/0394.html

Diane Stein
Florida Citizens Commission on Human Rights
+1 727-422-8820
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December 16, 2020 at 6:09 am GMT

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