Tampa Bay Attorney Explains What Rights Citizens Have Under the Baker Act at Free Seminar
Tampa Bay area attorney and former Assistant Public Defender of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Carmen Miller, Esq., was the featured speaker at the seminar on mental health rights.
The Florida chapter of CCHR is a non-profit mental health watchdog dedicated to the protection of children.
The headquarters for CCHR Florida are located in downtown Clearwater.
Involuntary examinations are being initiated on children without parental knowledge. The parent finds out AFTER their child has been Baker Acted.
The mental health law currently allows for individuals of all ages, including children, to be taken into custody and sent for an involuntary psychiatric examination.
While the original intention of the Baker Act was to protect the rights of citizens sent for involuntary examination, it has become a source of great abuse.
The mental health law in Florida, commonly called the Baker Act, allows for a person of any age to be taken into custody and transported to a psychiatric facility for examination. During 2018 there were over 200,000 Baker Acts with more than 36,000 of them initiated on children. Some of these children are very young, including those between the ages of 2 and 5 years old. [1]
Over the past several years, CCHR Florida has worked to ensure that parents and guardians are consulted before a child is Baker Acted. As a result, several counties and cities have now mandated that parents must be consulted before the Baker Act can be initiated on their children.
“People need to know their rights under the law, especially when the law allows a person to be taken into custody against their will,” said the president of CCHR Florida, Diane Stein.
While the original intention of the Baker Act was to protect the rights of citizens sent for involuntary psychiatric examination, it has become a source of great abuse. To learn more about the Baker Act or to reserve seats for upcoming seminars, please call 727-442-8820.
About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,’” he wrote in March 1969.
Sources:
[1] Baker Act Reporting Center https://www.usf.edu/cbcs/baker-act/documents/ba_usf_annual_report_2017_2018.pdf
Samuel Guillard
Citizens Commission on Human Rights
+1 727-442-8820
email us here
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CCHR: Imagine a World Without Psychiatric Abuse
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