Citizens Commission on Human Rights International

CCHR and its Task Force Against Racism, headed by NAACP chapter president, Rev. Fred Shaw, lash out against coercive psychiatric practices that African Americans are subjected to.

Group protests the American Psychiatric Association meeting during May's Mental Health Month, calling for legislation to define forced treatment as torture and to ban electroshock treatment.

In the wake of the World Health Organization, World Psychiatric Association and European Psychiatric Congress condemning coercive psych practices, a mental health watchdog asks why an APA Meeting has failed to do the same.

Up to 45% of mental health inpatients have experienced sexual violence, with one hospital saying its rate of patient sexual assault was within the "industry norm."

The watchdog group points to the estimated $8 billion in annual mental health fraud, including in for-profit behavioral facilities, revealing how they exploit insurance by keeping patients hospitalized for financial gain.

The mental health industry watchdog, which helped obtain restraint reforms two decades ago, relentlessly continues to demand a ban on lethal restraint procedures. It says celebrity support for greater oversight and protections has been vital.

CCHR urges a ban be extended to all shock machines used for behavioral and mental health treatment, citing brain damage and other harms.

CCHR says millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on psychotropic drug research later found to be flawed and harmful to consumers

American Indian and Alaska Native people are being defrauded in a mental health system that has harmed them for centuries; government suspends 100 behavioral providers in crackdown on fraud.

With hundreds of thousands of involuntary psychiatric holds in the U.S. annually, the mental health industry watchdog raises awareness about tools to protect against this abuse.