‘Stop Stigmatizing Children for Normal Childhood Behavior’ Says Citizen’s Commission on Human Right Executive Director for the UK

As the UK marked Children’s Mental Health Week February 5 to 11, Citizens Commission on Human Rights UK’s national spokesperson called for reform

“Psychiatrists have been editing childhood and adolescence out of existence,” said Brian Daniels, Executive Director of Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) for the UK, in an open letter written for Children’s Mental Health Week. CCHR is a mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szaz to protect individuals from abusive or coercive practices in the field of mental health.

 

“When it’s Children’s Mental Health Week, it’s ironic that attention isn’t actually focused on children’s mental health. Instead, the focus is on mental ‘illness’ and the host of psychiatric ‘disorders’ used to label various aspects of childhood.”

Psychiatrists have even gone so far as to label difficulties with mathematics or reading as “impairments” in their diagnostic manuals, and normal childhood behavior has been categorized as a so-called mental “disorder.”

Daniels began blowing the whistle on violations of human rights in the field of mental health when his own eyes were opened to these abuses after his aunt was institutionalized. On a visit to his aunt’s hospital, he says, “I expected to see people getting better. But what I saw was people experiencing some kind of ‘zombie’ effect. They looked like they’d been beaten up or assaulted.”

He began looking into psychiatry and discovered Citizens Commission on Human Rights, and soon became the organization’s executive director in the UK. He and his volunteers educate the public on coercive psychiatric practices and document abuses to bring about reform. They have exposed criminal practices in the psychiatric industry and helped bring about the banning of the prescription and use of seven drugs on children shown to increase the risk of suicide in those under the age of 18.

“Children and adolescents are being chemically restrained, some for lengthy periods of time. Consequently, they experience the debilitating effects that go hand-in-hand with the drugs,” wrote Daniels. “The saddest and most tragic aspect of it all is some children don't make it. They take their own lives after taking drugs like antidepressants that are known to cause suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior. Parents who have lost their children have said they would never have let their children take the psychiatric drugs if they had been fully informed and knew the truth.”

For decades, CCHR chapters throughout the world have been documenting and reporting inhumane and dangerous practices of coercive psychiatry. Last October, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) issued guidelines to end abuses and coercive practices in mental health care.

Much work is still needed to bring about real and lasting reform, and Daniels and his team will continue exposing criminal activity and educating the public to protect them from abuse in the field of mental health.

Daniels and his team are inspired by the words of humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, that “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”

To learn more about the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, visit their website, watch Brian Daniel’s episode of Voices for Humanity, or CCHR documentaries on the Scientology Network.

The Scientology Network debuted in March 2018. Since launching with a special featuring Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige, the Scientology Network has been viewed in over 240 countries and territories in 17 languages. Satisfying the curiosity of people about Scientology and Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting the everyday lives of Scientologists, showing the Church as a global organization, and presenting its social betterment programs that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. The network also showcases documentaries by independent filmmakers who represent a cross-section of cultures and faiths, but share a common purpose of uplifting communities.

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