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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Monday, March 27th, 2023

Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The 2023 Regular Session (102nd General Assembly, 1st Regular Session) convened on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, and will end on Friday, May 12, 2023. You can see the House Bills (HB) by clicking here; and the Senate Bills (SB) are listed here.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

We Urge You To Contact Your Legislators To Express Your Own Viewpoints

We’d like to describe some bills about which we’d particularly like you to contact your legislators. Please write, call or visit to express your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB123 or HB123).

Four Very Very Bad Bills

HB1154 (Sponsor: Representative Dan Houx, Republican, District 54, Johnson county)

and

SB614 (Sponsor: Senator Holly Thompson Rehder, Republican, District 27, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Iron, Madison, Perry, Reynolds and Scott counties)

These bills require the Department of Health and Senior Services, in collaboration with a Missouri university hospital and medical center operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Missouri, to research and conduct clinical trials on the efficacy of using psychedelic drugs such as MDMA (Ecstasy), psilocybin, and ketamine, for the treatment of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, treatment-resistant depression, substance abuse disorders, or who require end-of-life care.

The mythical and debunked theory that a chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression, which launched an antidepressant industry in 1989, is being rephrased today to sell Americans on taking psychedelic drugs for their mental health instead.

In the wake of SSRI antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil having been exposed as being no more effective than a placebo—with a threat to industry profits—psychedelics are being peddled to replace antidepressants and capture a projected $10 billion a year market. But this change in treatment and theories is like switching seats on the Titanic.

The theories behind how psychedelics “work” today remain hype rather than science. We are seeing the same rapturous reception given psychedelics, buoyed by a re-hashed brain chemical theory and claims of a “renaissance” in mental health treatment. It took 30 years for the “chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain-causes-depression” myth to be fully recognized as pseudoscience and dangerously misleading to consumers. We should recognize the trademark signs of this same marketing scam with psychedelics and prevent America from “turning on and tuning out” to these mind-altering drugs before it is too late. 

Read more about this fraud here.

HB1123 (Sponsor: Representative  Mike Stephens, Republican, District 128, Hickory and Polk counties)

This bill establishes the “Dialectical Behavior Therapy Task Force” which shall recommend standards and procedures for certifications in dialectical behavior therapy, and requires health benefit plans to provide coverage for dialectical behavioral services. This bill is similar to SB 397, sponsored by Senator Greg Razer (Democrat, District 7, Jackson county).

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a psychotherapy for people who experience emotions very intensely (so-called “mood disorders”). It’s a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is a form of psychotherapy that attempts to modify dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and thoughts — by evaluating for the person, challenging the person’s behaviors, and getting the person to change those behaviors, often in combination with psychiatric drugs.

While DBT may be advertised as a method to reduce psychiatric drug use, psychopharmacologic interventions are oftentimes considered appropriate adjunctive care.

The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior or study problems as “diseases.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are dangerous.

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DEAR POTENTIAL CCHR STL VOLUNTEERS

Thursday, January 5th, 2023

At one time you may have expressed interest in the mission of CCHR St. Louis, or you may have expressed interest in volunteering with CCHR St. Louis.

To remind you of our Mission:

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a nonprofit charitable mental health watchdog organization dedicated to eradicating psychiatric abuses and ensuring patient protections. 

Volunteers Needed One Day

Missouri State Capitol Building
Jefferson City, Missouri

3rd Floor Rotunda, House Side

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Help inform our legislators about CCHR Issues.

Distribute documentary DVD’s and other CCHR properties to legislative offices and man our table passing out CCHR materials.

Our state legislators and their aides are generally receptive to citizen’s concerns.

Hatting is included. Help out and participate in our civic mission.

Please reply to CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.ORG with your contact information and availability.

Best regards,

Moritz Farbstein

Public Affairs Director

Citizens Commission on Human Rights® of St. Louis

P.O. Box 300256

St. Louis, MO 63130-9256

www.CCHRSTL.org

CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.ORG

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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Monday, December 26th, 2022

Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The 2023 Regular Session (102nd General Assembly, 1st Regular Session) convenes on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, and will end on Friday, May 12, 2023. So far there are 474 proposed House Bills prefiled for the session. You can see these HBs by clicking here; and so far there are 373 proposed Senate Bills prefiled for the session, listed here.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

We Urge You To Contact Your Legislators To Express Your Own Viewpoints

We’d like to describe some bills about which we’d particularly like you to contact your legislators. Please write, call or visit to express your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB123 or HB123).

Very Very Bad Bills

HB146 (Sponsor: Representative Jo Doll, Democrat, District 91 – St. Louis)

This bill requires health care professionals that provide maternity health care services to screen for mental disorders and mental illnesses in all pregnant women as early as possible at the onset of prenatal care and throughout the pregnancy. Any pregnant woman found to have a mental disorder or mental illness shall be referred for treatment.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services to vulnerable women. Mental health screening based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) not only is the means by which psychiatrists drum up new business, but also is a major threat to the civil liberties and freedoms of all those in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Mental health screening aims to get whole populations on drugs and thus under control. Patients with actual physical conditions (such as pregnancy) are routinely misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders, then drugged or institutionalized. Numerous studies show that untreated physical problems can cause behavioral and emotional problems, not to mention the many problems caused by adverse reactions (side effects) to psychiatric drugs. 

HB378 (Sponsor: Representative Crystal Quade, Democrat, District 132 – Greene County)

This bill directs the Department of Mental Health to establish a grant program for nonprofits to set up behavioral crisis centers to deliver mental health treatment in an emergency; where “behavioral crisis” means any instance in which a person’s behavior makes the person a danger to himself or herself or others or prevents the person from functioning effectively in the community.

By their own admission psychiatrists cannot predict a person’s dangerousness or violence. The popular refrain that psychiatry can determine if a person is a danger to self or others is a complete fraud.

No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable, subject to unreasonable depression, anxiety or panic. Mental health care is therefore both valid and necessary. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods  that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well-being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable.

SB122 (Sponsor: Senator Karla May, Democrat, District 4 – St. Louis)

This bill provides that a child may be excused from attendance at school if the child is unable to attend school due to mental or behavioral health concerns, provided that the school receives documentation from a mental health professional.

This is a bald attempt to funnel vulnerable children into the mental health system, where they can be drugged with violence-causing psychotropic drugs.

Claiming that even normal childhood behavior is a mental disorder and that drugs are the solution, psychiatrists and psychologists have insinuated themselves into positions of authority over children. Through a virtual coup d’etat in our schools, our once strong and effective scholastic-based schools have turned into explosive test tubes.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have invaded our once successful education systems and converted them into behavioral laboratories. The entirety of psychological and psychiatric programs for children are founded on the tacit assumptions that mental health “experts” know all about the mind and mental phenomena, know a better way of life, a better value system and how to improve the lives of children beyond the understanding and capability of not only parents, but everyone else in society. 

The reality is that all child mental health programs are designed to control the lives of children towards specific ideological objectives at the expense of not only the children’s sanity and well-being, but also that of their parents and of society itself.

The antidote to a child’s “behavioral health concerns” is academics and literacy, not removing them from school on the condition they are in psychiatric treatment.

Very Good Bills

SB158 (Sponsor: Senator Nick Schroer, Republican, District 2 – St. Charles County) 

This bill establishes “The Parents’ Bill of Rights for Student Well-Being” which lists rights for parents relating to education, health care, and mental health. The act prohibits public schools and school districts from infringing on the rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, or mental health of such parent’s minor child without first demonstrating that the infringement is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest and such interest cannot be otherwise served by a less restrictive means.

No one but their parents should be determining the mental health care for a child.

SJR29 (Senate Joint Resolution 29, Sponsor: Senator Jill Carter, Republican, District 32 – Jasper and Newton counties)

This proposed constitutional amendment would provide that every parent has a fundamental right to exercise exclusive control over all aspects of their minor children’s lives without governmental interference, including, but not limited to, decisions regarding their minor children’s custody, upbringing, education, religious instruction, discipline, physical and mental health care, and place of habitation. Read the bill summary for the full list of rights.

No one but their parents should be determining the mental health care for a child.

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URGENT Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The 2022 Regular Session (101st General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session) convened on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, and will end on Friday, May 13, 2022.

This time we’d like to further discuss two bills about which we’d like you to contact your legislators. Please write, call or visit to express from your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB123 or HB123).

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

Very Very Bad Bill

HB2342 (Sponsor: Representative Tricia Derges, Republican, District 140 – Christian county)

This bill provides for children to seek mental health counseling and treatment without parental consent, and all records and referrals are confidential from parents and guardians. The provider must immediately determine if the child is a danger to self or others.

By their own admission psychiatrists cannot predict a person’s dangerousness or violence. The popular refrain that psychiatry can determine if a person is a danger to self or others is a complete fraud.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services to vulnerable children. This is the gateway to sending a child to a psychiatric hospital without any parental knowledge or consent. Psychiatrists, school counselors and other mental health practitioners have a terrible track record of accurately determining if a child is a danger to self or others, and this is the criteria for determining such things as involuntary commitment.

First, this bill violates US Constitutional Rights. Amendment IX to the U.S. Constitution grant parents a constitutional right to be parents for their children. The courts have repeatedly affirmed those rights[i].

Second, it could also be argued that this bill violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which requires that parents be given notice and an opportunity to be heard prior to any deprivation of parental rights, even if they are temporary deprivations[ii]. 

[i] “[T]he interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children… is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the United States Supreme] Court.” Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 65, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000) (plurality opinion) (citing Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166, 64 S.Ct. 438, 88 L.Ed. 645 (1944); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399, 401, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923)). Parents have a fundamental right “to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.” Troxel, 530 U.S. at 66, 120 S.Ct. 2054 (citing Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720, 117 S.Ct. 2258, 138 L.Ed.2d 772 (1997); Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 753, 102 S.Ct. 1388, 71 L.Ed.2d 599 (1982); Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584, 602, 99 S.Ct. 2493, 61 L.Ed.2d 101 (1979); Quilloin v. Walcott, 434 U.S. 246, 255, 98 S.Ct. 549, 54 L.Ed.2d 511 (1978); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 232, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972); Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972)).

[ii] [T]he Supreme Court made clear that termination of parental rights impinges upon a liberty interest of which a citizen may not be deprived without due process of law. This circuit has applied Santosky’s holding … to the temporary seizures of children and has held that notice and a hearing are required before a child is removed “`except for extraordinary situations where some valid governmental interest is at stake that justifies postponing the hearing until after the event.'” “Valid governmental interests” include “emergency circumstances which pose an immediate threat to the safety of a child.” As the Second Circuit has noted, the “mere possibility” of danger is not enough to justify a removal without appropriate process. (emphasis added)

Roska ex rel. Roska v. Peterson, 328 F. 3d 1230, 1245 (10th Cir. 2003) (emphasis added).  Since this proposed statute allows for removal based solely on the “belief” of “substantial danger”, it is authorizing removal based on the “mere possibility” of danger and “is not enough to justify a removal without appropriate process.” Id. In other words, a parent needs the ability to appear in court prior to any deprivation of parental rights or custody.

Very Good Bill

HB1755 – Establishes Parents’ Bill of Rights (Sponsor: Representative Chuck Basye, Republican, District 47 – Boone, Randolph, Howard, Cooper counties) 

This bill prohibits the state, any of its political subdivisions, any other governmental entity, or any other institution from infringing on fundamental rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of their children.

This bill also requires school boards to implement policies that will allow parents to have more involvement in the public school system including having a voice as to what materials the children will be instructed on as well as the ability to withdraw their child from any portion of the school district’s comprehensive health education that relates to instruction in sexually transmitted diseases or any instruction regarding human sexuality if they do not want their child to participate. The school board must also implement procedures that allow parents to learn their parental responsibilities and rights.

No one but their parents should be determining the mental health care for a child.

CCHR suggests the inclusion of this simple statement in any Parents’ Bill of Rights:

“Infringement of parental rights. — The state, any of its political subdivisions, any other governmental entity, or any other institution may not infringe on the fundamental rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of his or her minor child without demonstrating that such action is reasonable and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest and that such action is narrowly tailored and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.”

This one paragraph does two things 1) mental health is specifically included and 2) it requires that any potential infringement on parental rights is reviewed using strict scrutiny. Strict scrutiny is a form of judicial review that courts use to determine the constitutionality of certain laws. This is basically the highest form of review that exists and the greatest protection.

Forced Psychiatry is Legislated Violence

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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Monday, January 24th, 2022

Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The 2022 Regular Session (101st General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session) convened on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, and will end on Friday, May 13, 2022.

This time we’d like to discuss new bills about which we’d like you to contact your legislators. Please write, call or visit to express from your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB123 or HB123).

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

Very Bad Bills

These are bills that further psychiatric abuses of human rights, and are moving swiftly toward becoming law. Please express your opposition and opinions about this to your legislators and copy the bill sponsor.

HB2342 (Sponsor: Representative Tricia Derges, Republican, District 140 – Christian county)

This bill provides for children to seek mental health counseling and treatment without parental consent, and all records and referrals are confidential from parents and guardians. The provider must immediately determine if the child is a danger to self or others.

By their own admission psychiatrists cannot predict a person’s dangerousness or violence. The popular refrain that psychiatry can determine if a person is a danger to self or others is a complete fraud.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services to vulnerable children. This is the gateway to sending a child to a psychiatric hospital without any parental knowledge or consent. Psychiatrists, school counselors and other mental health practitioners have a terrible track record of accurately determining if a child is a danger to self or others, and this is the criteria for determining such things as involuntary commitment.

HB1978 (Sponsor: Representative Ann Kelley, Republican, District 127 – Lamar, Dade, Barton, Jasper, Cedar counties)

Under current federal law, a person who is in an institution for mental disease cannot receive Medicaid coverage. This bill requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to apply for a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in order to give MO HealthNet coverage for mental health services provided in residential programs in psychiatric facilities.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services (and consequent budget) to a new and vulnerable patient population.


HB2019 (Sponsor: Representative Yolanda Young, Democrat, District 22 – Jackson county)

This bill provides financial supplements, subject to appropriation, for public schools to employ school nurses and mental health professionals. A school district must apply to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and specify the schools that will hire these positions. The amount of the supplement is capped at $40,000 per school per position. The bill creates the “School Nurse Financial Supplement Fund” and the “School Mental Health Professional Financial Supplement Fund” in the State Treasury, and requires DESE to create rules ensuring that positions funded with supplement money only perform duties associated with the job title, and preference be given to schools that demonstrate the greatest need.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services (and consequent budget) to vulnerable school children.


HB2253 (Sponsor: Representative Crystal Quade, Democrat, District 132 – Greene county)

This bill provides for the Department of Mental Health to help non profits set up behavioral crisis centers for those who are danger to self and others. It’s a psychiatric hospital under another name.

By their own admission psychiatrists cannot predict a person’s dangerousness or violence. The popular refrain that psychiatry can determine if a person is a danger to self or others is a complete fraud.

This bill would expand harmful psychiatric services (and consequent budget) to a new and vulnerable patient population.

Relatively Good Bills

These are bills that inhibit psychiatric abuses of human rights, and are moving swiftly toward becoming law. Please express your support and opinions about this to your legislators and copy the bill sponsor.

SB810 (Sponsor: Senator Andrew Koenig, Republican, District 15 – Part of St. Louis County) and Related Bills (SB776, SB653, HB1474, HB1755, HB1858, HB1995, HB2008, HB2068, HB2132, HB2189, HB2195, HB2294, HJR110)

SB810 establishes “The Parents’ Bill of Rights for Student Well-Being” and modifies other provisions of elementary and secondary education.

Similar to others about parental ability to object to curriculum and withdraw student from sex education and “certain classroom materials”. While this bill is Anti-Psych in part, it is somewhat concerning in other parts. It is the most measured and complex of this series of bills. They will probably be combined as the session progresses.

Good part:
Under this act, no governmental entity, school district, or other public institution shall infringe on the fundamental rights, as provided in the act, of a natural parent, adoptive parent, or legal guardian of such parent’s minor child without demonstrating that the infringement is reasonable, narrowly tailored to a compelling state interest, and that such interest could not be served by less restrictive means.

Potentially problematic:
We are entirely in favor of parental rights. But most of these bills contain excessive and arbitrary burdens on the schools regarding curriculum and children’s mental health care. We would recommend completely separating parental rights from matters of curriculum and mental health.

HJR101 (Sponsor: Representative Yolanda Young, Democrat, District 22 – Jackson county)

Upon voter approval, this proposed Constitutional amendment (House Joint Resolution) removes a Constitutional voting prohibition on all persons who are subject to a guardianship of their estate or person, or all persons who are confined in a mental institution.

We think this is a fine human rights proposal.

SJR47 (Sponsor: Senator Mike Moon, Republican, District 29 – Barry, Lawrence, McDonald, Stone, and Taney counties)

Prohibits laws or public policies infringing on the right of individuals to refuse medical procedures or treatments

This constitutional amendment, if adopted by the voters, prohibits the passage or implementation of any law, order, ordinance, regulation or public policy of the state or any political subdivision of the state, including schools and institutions of higher education that receive public funds, that infringes upon the unquestionable right of individuals to refuse any medical procedure or treatment, including, but not limited to, injections, vaccines, or prophylactics. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged to any person in this state because of the exercise of this right. Nothing in this amendment shall be interpreted to infringe upon a parent’s right to exercise control over their minor, unemancipated child’s physical and mental care.

CCHR also recommends that concerned individuals execute a Living Will which lets you specify decisions about your health care treatment in advance. Should you be in a position where you are to be subject to unwanted psychiatric hospitalization and/or mental or medical treatment, this Letter of Protection from Psychiatric Incarceration and/or Treatment directs that such incarceration, hospitalization, treatment or procedures not be imposed, committed or used on you.

Forced Psychiatry is Legislated Violence

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Babies Under a Year Old Being Given Harmful Psychiatric Drugs

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

CCHR International obtained the real statistics on the number of U.S. children being prescribed psychiatric drugs: 7.2 million.

Of those, 508,000 are aged 2-5 years old, equal to the entire population of Sacramento, California. 125,000 are babies aged 0-1.

If you’re trying to visualize that number, it’s more babies than would fit into the largest college football stadium in the U.S. (Michigan Stadium, also known as “The Big House.”)

Why this isn’t generally reported is because we were only able to obtain these statistics through the purchase of a costly official report, a truly vital endeavor, made possible only through your donations.

From this, the question you’re probably asking is How on earth could 125,000 babies be put on powerful mind altering drugs?

It’s a logical question. We believe we have the answer and that with your help, together we can do something about it.

CCHR has long suspected that one of the reasons there are so many children on drugs, particularly ones so young and even babies, is through MEDICAID, which is state and federal funding for low income families, their children, as well as for foster care children. There is a financial incentive for child drugging because of Medicaid, as the states receive funding based on costs incurred for treating children, including with psychotropic drugs.

A 2015 report on Medicaid found: “The high rates of psychotropic medication use in the Medicaid population, risks associated with these drugs, and research documenting inappropriate prescribing, have raised concerns, especially for children involved in the child welfare system.”

While there has been some media coverage on this issue and concern raised by legislators, nothing truly effective is being done about it. Moreover, there has never been a state-by-state analysis of exactly how many babies and toddlers are being drugged, using taxpayer dollars (i.e. Medicaid).

In order to fully expose this, and what state legislators are unwittingly funding (baby, toddler and child drugging), CCHR International began filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for state Medicaid records (FOIA only applies to government agencies). What we have found to date is confirming our suspicions. Consider the number of Medicaid-funded children being drugged in the following states:

Georgia 177,469
Pennsylvania 150,250
Illinois 74,635
Utah 46,241

For Missouri in 2014, for example, there were 24,388 children, in or out of foster care, who were receiving public mental health services (meaning they were likely on one or more psychotropic drugs.) Total foster care drug costs have averaged roughly $16 Million per year in Missouri. More than 30 percent of Missouri’s roughly 13,000 Medicaid foster children per month are on at least one psychotropic medication, with 20 percent taking two or more psychotropic medications at the same time.

We can pretty much guarantee that state legislators are unaware that funds are being used to drug so many toddlers and infants. And because Medicaid is funded by the states, legislators can do something about it.

The idea of putting vulnerable babies and toddlers on drugs is horrifying. All of this can be hard to confront. But we must. With your help we can not only expose it, but demand that those in power do something about it.

Please contact your State Representatives and Senators and let them know what you think about this. In Missouri, find your Representative and Senator by 9-digit Zip Code here:http://www.senate.mo.gov/legislookup/ZipLookup.aspx.

Be a Hero and help someone who has been a victim of psychiatric abuse by making a tax deductible donation to CCHR St. Louis!

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The Insane Bloat of the Missouri Department of Mental Health Budget

Monday, April 13th, 2020

The Insane Bloat of the Missouri Department of Mental Health Budget from 1971 to 2020

Well Over $2 Billion and Rapidly Rising


Plus an additional $45 Million in the 2020 Supplemental Budget

The 2020 Supplemental Budget authorizes over $6.2 Billion extra in spending for various measures, including mental health and suicide prevention efforts that were not previously included in the regular budget. Note that the Department of Mental Health does not acknowledge that psychiatric drugs can actually cause suicide as a side effect, although the FDA most certainly recognizes this.


Under normal circumstances, the Supplemental Budget funds various governmental functions that were not fully accounted for in the regular budget, plugging holes in the state’s spending as the fiscal year draws to a close on June 30, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the scale of this year’s supplemental budget is unprecedented.


SS SCS HCS HB2014, signed by the Governor on April 10, 2020, will distribute a large portion of Missouri’s federal stimulus dollars, as well as our own state General Revenue to fund Missouri’s fight against COVID-19. Normally, the Supplemental Budget’s price tag is measured in Millions. The staggering amount of budgetary authority in this year’s Supplemental Budget is over $6.2 Billion, and includes significant additional spending by the Department of Mental Health.


Here is a breakdown of additional Department of Mental Health spending authorized in the Supplemental Budget:

Department of Mental Health Federal Stimulus Fund
 $5,075,000    For receiving and expending grants, donations, contracts, and payments
 $900,000      For suicide prevention initiatives
 $15,364,800   For funding community programs
 $8,175,000    For paying a pandemic stipend to state employees providing direct care and support to institutionalized individuals during the COVID-19 public health emergency

Department of Mental Health Federal Fund
 $970,000      For receiving and expending grants, donations, contracts, and payments 
$834,127       For funding youth community programs
 $348,724      For funding developmental disabilities services

Department of Mental Health General Revenue Fund
 $3,922,500    For paying overtime to state employees
 $200,000      To pay the state operated Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/ID) provider tax
 $259,530      For Expense and Equipment
 $8,175,000    For paying a pandemic stipend to state employees providing direct care and support to institutionalized individuals during the COVID-19 public health emergency

$676,996      Funds to be transferred out of the State Treasury to Department of Mental Health Federal Fund From Intermediate Care Facility Intellectually Disabled Reimbursement Allowance Fund 

Total Department of Mental Health additions: $44,901,677.

The introduction and passage of legislation designed to curb psychiatric fraud and abuse can contribute to the reduction of the Department of Mental Health budget. For examples of Model Legislation, click here.

Reports show that:

  • 10% to 25% of mental health practitioners sexually abuse patients.
  • Psychiatry has the worst fraud track record of all medical disciplines.
  • The largest health care fraud suit in history [$375 million] involved the smallest sector of healthcare–psychiatry.
  • An estimated $20-$40 billion is defrauded in the mental health industry in any given year.

Download and read the full report “Massive Fraud — Psychiatry’s Corrupt Industry.”

Recommendations

  1. Establish or increase the number of psychiatric fraud investigation units to recover funds that are embezzled in the mental health system.
  2. Clinical and financial audits of all government-run and private psychiatric facilities that receive government subsidies or insurance payments should be done to ensure accountability; statistics on admissions, treatment and deaths, without breaching patient confidentiality, should be compiled for review.
  3. A list of convicted psychiatrists and mental health workers, especially those convicted and/or disciplined for fraud and sexual abuse should be kept on state, national and international law enforcement and police agencies databases, to prevent criminally convicted and/or de-registered mental health practitioners from gaining employment elsewhere in the mental health field.
  4. No convicted mental health practitioner should be employed by government agencies, especially in correctional/prison facilities or schools.
  5. The DSM and lCD (mental disorders section) should be removed from use in all government agencies, departments and other bodies including criminal, educational and justice systems.
  6. Establish rights for patients and their insurance companies to receive refunds for mental health treatment which did not achieve the promised result or improvement, or which resulted in proven harm to the individual, thereby ensuring that responsibility lies with the individual practitioner and psychiatric facility rather than the government or its agencies.
  7. None of the mental disorders in the DSM/ICD should be eligible for insurance coverage because they have no scientific, physical validation. Governmental, criminal, educational and judicial agencies should not rely on the DSM or lCD (mental disorders section).
  8. Provide funding and insurance coverage only for proven, workable treatments that verifiably and dramatically improve or cure mental health problems.

We think it is time to call psychiatry and psychology for what they are — failed pseudo sciences with no basis in fact, pseudo sciences that harm their recipients and line the pocketbooks of their practitioners.

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Missouri Public Schools May Become Mental Health Clinics

Monday, April 13th, 2020
A bill in the Missouri House (HB2561), if it becomes law, would provide a state subsidy up to $40,000 to public schools to hire a mental health professional.

This is part of a nationwide psychiatric effort to turn public schools into mental health clinics, while legitimate educational professionals continue to bemoan the sorry state of public education.

The sponsor of this bill, recently elected Missouri State Representative Yolanda Young (Democrat, District 22 in Kansas City), has an impressive career as a community activist. We suspect she genuinely believes that turning schools into mental health clinics is a way to improve education.

We disagree.

Children worldwide are under extremely dangerous assault. Today, parents and teachers are also deceived in the name of improved mental health and better education. The results are devastating.

As a result of psychiatric and psychological intervention in schools, harmful behaviorist programs and psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs now decimate our schools.

According to educators, academic, knowledge–based curricula have been jettisoned in favor of psychology that places so-called “mental health,” emotions and belief systems above educational outcomes.

Drugging children with addictive, violence-causing mind-altering psychotropic drugs, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, is the “mental health” currently being employed by the psychiatric mental health industry. The false rationale is, the drugged kids will now be able to compete with children from wealthier families who attend better schools.

Psychiatric drugs and psychological programs have been implicated in increasing child violence. Skyrocketing youth suicide rates have also followed in the wake of widespread psychiatric, drug–based, child programs. Meddling with the brains of children via these harmful and addictive chemicals, and fraudulent “mental health” programs, constitutes criminal assault, and it’s time it was recognized for what it is.

Contact your state legislators and tell them what you think about this.

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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The Second Regular Session of the 100th General Assembly convened on  January 8, 2020, and will end May 15, 2020.

This time we’d like to discuss two Joint Resolutions which we’d like you to write your legislators about. Please write from your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get.

The full text of each Resolution can be found here:
House Joint Resolution 105
Senate Joint Resolution 55

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

HJR 105 and SJR 55
Provides for parents’ exclusive right to control the upbringing of their children

This constitutional amendment, if approved by the voters, declares that every parent has a fundamental right to exercise exclusive control over all aspects of their minor children’s lives without governmental interference, including, but not limited to, decisions regarding their minor children’s custody, upbringing, education, religious instruction, discipline, physical and mental health care, and place of habitation. 

We think this is a good idea because the psychiatric mental health care industry is known to interfere in parental rights regarding their minor children.

For example: Parents of millions of schoolchildren worldwide have been told that their children have a “mental disorder” that requires them to be chemically restrained by powerful mind-altering, addictive and harmful psychiatric drugs; or even worse, electroshocking them when the drugs don’t “work.”

Children are human beings who have every right to expect our protection, care, guidance, and the chance to reach their full potential. They will be denied this if they are trapped in the verbal and chemical strait-jackets of psychiatry’s invented labels, mind-altering drugs, and other harmful “treatments.”

There has been a persistent lobbying effort, funded by pharmaceutical companies, to increase the number of psychiatric drugs prescribed to even more children. A universal mental health screening program is the stated goal of these lobbyists. Mental “screening” of school children aims to Leave No Child Unmedicated.

Please express your personal concerns to your Missouri State Representative and Senator, along with your support for HJR 105 and SJR 55.
BAN ECT

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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Wednesday, December 27th, 2017

Periodically we let you know the progress of various proposed legislation making its way through the Missouri General Assembly and suggest ways for you to contribute your viewpoint to your state Representative and state Senator.

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The Ninety-Ninth General Assembly, Second Regular Session, will convene at 12:00 P.M., Wednesday, January 3, 2018. Pre-filing of bills started December 1, 2017.

This time we’d like to discuss several bills which we’d like you to write your legislators about. Please write from your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB661).

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

Very Bad Bills

These are bills that further psychiatric abuses of human rights. Please express your opposition and opinions about these to your legislators and copy the sponsors.

1) SB661 – Senate Bill 661 – sponsored by Senator Jeanie Riddle (Republican, District 10).

This act provides that after a person accused of committing a crime has been involuntarily committed to the Department of Mental Health due to lack of mental fitness to stand trial, the legal counsel for the Department shall have standing to participate in hearings regarding involuntary medications for the accused.

The subject of this bill had been introduced previously in 2016 and 2017. We think it is very bad because it allows the Department of Mental Health to force psychiatric drugs on involuntarily committed citizens. Both of these actions — involuntary commitment and enforced drugging — are psychiatric abuses of human rights.

2) SB785 – Senate Bill 785 – sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed (Democrat, District 5).

This act establishes the Coordinating Board for Mental Health Issues in Higher Education (CBMHI). Each public institution of higher education in Missouri shall have one representative, who is either an administrator or counseling director, on the CBMHI.

It requires setting standards and regulations for student counseling facilities that relate to mental health problems, and developing a process for measuring a higher educational institution’s ability to meet student mental health needs. In other words, it will promote psychiatric and psychological counseling, and likely recommend psychiatric drugs as well. While this sounds altruistic, we know that the current state of psychiatric and psychological counseling is an abuse of human rights.

3) HB1363 – House Bill 1363 – sponsored by Representative Bill Kidd (Republican, District 20).

This bill requires teachers and principals to complete two hours of suicide prevention education each school year.

Again, while this sounds altruistic, the current state of so-called “suicide prevention education” is a recommendation for harmful and addictive psychiatric drugs, which are known to cause the very thing they are supposed to prevent, which is violence and suicide.

4) HB1419 – House Bill 1419 – sponsored by Representative Marsha Haefner (Republican, District 95).

This bill requires certain health care professionals to complete two hours of suicide prevention training as a condition of licensure.

More of the same — the current state of so-called “suicide prevention training” is a recommendation for harmful and addictive psychiatric drugs, which are known to cause the very thing they are supposed to prevent, which is violence and suicide.

Very Good Bills

These are bills that support human rights and oppose psychiatric abuses. Please express your support and opinions about these to your legislators and copy the sponsors.

1) SB672 – Senate Bill 672 – sponsored by Senator Andrew Koenig (Republican, District 15).

This act provides that during a child protective investigation if the child is at risk for possible removal the Children’s Division shall provide information to the parent about community service programs that provide support services for families in crisis. Additionally, a parent may temporarily delegate to an attorney-in-fact any powers regarding the care and custody of a child, where a child subject to such power of attorney shall not be considered placed in foster care.

This returns parental rights to the parents instead of forcing a child into foster care. We think this is supportive of human rights, not to mention preventing a child from receiving psychiatric drugging which almost always occurs in foster care.

2) SB786 – Senate Bill 786 – sponsored by Senator Jill Schupp (Democrat, District 24).

This bill modifies provisions relating to “whistle-blower’s” protection for public employees by broadening its scope of application and extending protections to the whistle-blower.

3) HB1294 – House Bill 1294 – sponsored by Representative Cheri Toalson Reisch (Republican, District 44).

This bill specifies that parental liberty to direct the upbringing, education, and care of his or her children is a fundamental right. The State of Missouri and any political subdivision of the state is prohibited from infringing on this right without demonstrating a compelling governmental interest.

Needless to say, we support parental rights as a basic human right. Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.” And Article 26 says, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”

4) HB1451 – House Bill 1451 – sponsored by Representative Karla May (Democrat, District 84).

This bill prohibits the use of electroconvulsive therapy on children under 16 years of age. Any person or mental health facility that administers electroconvulsive therapy to someone under 16 years of age will be fined up to $100,000 or imprisoned for two years, or both, and will be liable for compensation to the person that was given the electroconvulsive therapy.

What can we say? About time! Get this one passed! Write your legislators now!

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