Georgia Chron - CCHR: "Family Estrangement" Used to Detain and Abuse Children in Psych Hospitals

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Watchdog condemns $12 billion child and adolescent behavioral market for forcing children into psychiatric institutions, leaving parents powerless to secure their release.

LOS ANGELES - GeorgiaChron -- Children and teens are being estranged from their families after parents, following psychiatric advice, admit them to psychiatric hospitals where they are drugged and abused, deepening the divide. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health industry watchdog, is warning families about the lucrative child and adolescent behavioral market that profits from pathologizing them as "oppositional defiant disorder," "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" (ADHD) and "conduct disorders."

This exploitation of vulnerable children and families is fueled by a booming industry. The U.S. behavioral market was valued at an estimated $83.78 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $132.46 billion by 2032.[1] According to one study, $12 billion was used to treat children and adolescents. Inpatient treatment accounts for about 33% of total expenditures for young people ($3.87 billion); prescription drugs account for over $1.06 billion for 0-17-year-olds.[2]

Treatment in psychiatric hospitals is especially risky, as evidenced by a recent New York Times article about one major for-profit behavioral hospital chain and a series of current lawsuits against a second one seeking $930 million over allegations of negligence, physical abuse, and falsified medical records to extend hospital stays.[3] As Patel Law points out, "When in a behavioral health setting, the individuals in the ward are extremely vulnerable. They are owed a duty of care to protect them from potential injuries."[4]

Recently, Collin Gosselin recounted his harrowing childhood and the traumatic experience of being institutionalized at 11 years old. Collin, known from reality TV with his parents and 7 siblings, begged to be saved from a mental health facility, where his mother had placed him. The U.S. Sun showed how he was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder, and was put on multiple psychiatric drugs, before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Philadelphia in May 2016.[5]

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According to a law firm, "Civil lawsuits and criminal charges have been filed regarding" this particular hospital and its staff, following a string of alleged assaults.[6]

Collin was lucky to be released with the help of his father and later joined the Marines but was dismissed after public claims about his having had multiple psychiatric conditions. A mental health evaluation has since cleared him of these diagnoses.[7]

Collin's release and subsequent struggle highlight the broader issues with psychiatric diagnoses. So-called oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder are grouped into a label, "disruptive behavior and dissocial disorder." According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, this includes those who have "negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures," such as a parent.

Childhood mental and behavioral health disorders account for the largest category of spending of health dollars for children.[8] The DSM is the basis for this, which by 1994, contained 32 childhood "psychiatric disorders." These are highly subjective criteria based on opinion, not science. In 2019, in a study published in Psychiatry Research, Dr. Kate Allsopp, lead researcher from the University of Liverpool, said: "Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice." Professor Peter Kinderman added, "The diagnostic system wrongly assumes that all distress results from disorder, and relies heavily on subjective judgments about what is normal."[9]

Prof. Allen Frances, the former Chairman of the DSM-IV Task Force said that the manual created "false epidemics" of ADHD. "There are no objective tests in psychiatry—no X-ray, laboratory or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder….," he stated.[10]

This explains how 6.1 million American children up to the age of 17 are prescribed psychotropic drugs, and how easy it was for Collin Gosselin to be detained in a psychiatric facility.

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Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International says, "Psychologists and psychiatrists are making a business out of so-called 'family estrangement.' They either exploit parents who feel powerless to control unruly children or 'normalize' a child's estrangement, encouraging it further—either way, it can end with broken families."

Many parents realize too late that they've been misled and then have to fight to get their children discharged from psychiatric facilities after admitting them.

Eastgate further states: "The entire industry is plagued by abuse, driven by an arbitrary system that redefines family and children's behaviors as 'mental disorders,' making youths vulnerable to involuntary detainment until their insurance coverage is exhausted. CCHR is actively working to end this exploitation by alerting legislators nationwide and advocating for the closure of abusive facilities."

CCHR also urges parents to report any incidents where a behavioral hospital refuses to release their child to either CCHR or an attorney.

About CCHR: It was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, and has helped secure hundreds of laws to protect individuals from abuse in the mental health system.

Sources:

[1] www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-behavioral-health-market-105298

[2] www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4541.html

[3] Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas, "How a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients: Acadia Healthcare is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts, a Times investigation found," New York Times, 1 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/issue/todayspaper/2024/09/02/todays-new-york-times; www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/cumberland-hospital-lawsuit-sep-9-2024; www.patellawteam.com/uhs-to-appeal-535m-negligence-decision-after-r ape/

[4] www.patellawteam.com/uhs-to-appeal-535m-negligence-decision-after-r ape/

[5] www.the-sun.com/tv/12360533/collin-gosselin-letter-dad-begging-saved-mental-hospital/

[6] www.levylaw.com/fairmount-behavioral-health-sexual-abuse-lawsuits/

[7] www.the-sun.com/tv/12360533/collin-gosselin-letter-dad-begging-saved-mental-hospital/

[8] www.apa.org/about/policy/child-adolescent-mental-behavioral-health

[9] neurosciencenews.com/meaningless-psychiatric-diagnosis-14434/

[10] www.cchrint.org/2022/02/14/new-diagnostic-manual-with-adhd-listed-could-turn-childhood-into-a-mental-disorder/, citing: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/saving-normal/201403/most-active-kids-don-t-have-adhd; www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201006/psychiatric-fads-and-overdiagnosis