The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) brought its award-winning Traveling Exhibit to Old Sacramento during Independence Day weekend, encouraging visitors to reflect on the importance of protecting human rights in mental health. The exhibit highlighted principles of individual liberty, informed consent, and the protection of fundamental human rights in healthcare, with displays examining controversial psychiatric practices and raising questions about coercive treatment and involuntary commitment.
According to CCHR research, an individual is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility somewhere in the world approximately every 30 seconds. In the United States, David Cohen, Professor of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, reported that involuntary psychiatric detentions have increased at a rate approximately three times faster than population growth in recent years. A study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, using 2014 data, found that involuntary hospitalizations accounted for 54 percent of admissions to psychiatric inpatient facilities. CCHR maintains that once committed, individuals may be subjected to psychiatric treatment without meaningful recourse.
The grand opening event featured keynote speakers including Eric Eisenhammer, CEO of Dauntless Communications, and Stacy Anderson, Executive Board Member of the National African American Civil Rights Organization. Drawing from his own experiences with the mental health system, Eisenhammer expressed appreciation for CCHR's work: "Thank you, CCHR, for the incredible work you do every day—educating, intervening, and giving people their lives back." Anderson focused her remarks on informed consent, sharing her vision for mental health justice: "I have a dream for mental health justice. I carry a dream where mental health care does not open one up to harm, does not silence, and does not stigmatize."
Founded in 1969 by psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology, CCHR is an international mental health watchdog dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights abuses. Its commissioners include physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, attorneys, legislators, and civil rights advocates. For more information, visit the CCHR website or watch documentaries on the work of CCHR volunteers around the world.
