Between 2004 and 2013 the number of retirement-age Americans taking at least three psychiatric drugs more than doubled and CCHR is demanding that this dangerous trend of polypharmacy within the senior population be investigated.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a non-profit mental health watchdog dedicated to the eradication of abuses committed under the guise of mental health, is hosting a banquet in honor of World Elder Abuse Awareness month on June 10th at the historic Fort Harrison for the purpose of raising awareness on the rights of older Amer
According to the national Council on Aging, as many as 5 million older Americans are abused each year with only about 1 in 14 cases reported to authorities.[1] In response to these alarming statistics, CCHR Florida launched a campaign in 2016 to raise awareness on the abuse suffered by the elderly under the mental health law especially the unnecessary and potentially harmful involuntary psychiatric examination of seniors, a process called Baker Acting. Now in honor of World Elder Abuse Awareness month, CCHR is hosting a banquet on June 10th at the historic Fort Harrison for the purpose of raising awareness on the rights of older Americans.
In 2015, 13,856 individuals 65 and older were sent for involuntary psychiatric examination in Florida. Though this is only about 7% of the total number of initiated involuntary examinations, these initiations present a real danger of harm being caused through the transfer of senior citizens from long-term care facilities to Baker Act facilities.[2]
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) reports[3] that long term care elderly patients have an elevated mortality risk between 1.99 and 3.76 times greater when they are relocated. This same DCF report also states that according to the U.S government’s Administration on Aging, Transfer Trauma, a sudden and unexpected relocation, is associated with depression, increased irritability, serious illness and elevated mortality risk for the frail elderly.
However, the abusive Baker Acting of seniors is not the only human rights violation of concern. The dangerous trend of polypharmacy within the senior population prompted CCHR to demand earlier this year that the Department of Elder Affairs investigate the alarming rise in older adults who are prescribed psychotropic drugs.
Polypharmacy, the concurrent use of multiple medications, has doubled in the last decade among retirement-age Americans despite warnings from geriatric medical organizations and office visits resulting in this type of multiple pharmaceutical prescription rose from 1.5 million in 2004 to 3.68 million in 2013 with rural areas showing the greatest increase.[4]
“The number of retirement-age Americans taking at least three psychiatric drugs more than doubled between 2004 and 2013,” said Diane Stein, President CCHR Florida. “Almost half of these seniors had no mental health diagnosis on record and this abuse needs to be investigated and stopped."[5]
The statistics are even worse for those diagnosed with dementia. According to the Office of the Inspector General, 304,983 elderly nursing home residents in the U.S. were given dangerous and often deadly antipsychotic drugs, of which 88% were prescribed off-label for dementia.[6]
“These are dangerous drugs and the Food & Drug Administration has made it known with a black box warning that the use of anti-psychotics with elderly suffering from dementia increases their risk of death,” said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida. “It is time that the psychiatric abuse of our seniors is investigated and those responsible held accountable.”
For more information on the banquet or the protection of elder rights under the mental health law please call 727-442-8820 or visit www.cchrflorida.org.
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.
It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, “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.’” For more information visit, www.cchrflorida.org
[1] How many older Americans are abused? ncoa.org/public-policy-action/elder-justice/elder-abuse-facts/
[2] A Brief Literature Review of the Effects of Relocation on the Elderly heu.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research_reports/HEU_Literature_Review_Sept23_2002.pdf
[3] Florida Department of Health, Long Term Care Facilities Alternatives to the Baker Act dcf.state.fl/programs/samh/MentalHealth/laws/LongTermCareFacilities.pdf
[4] Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs, Benedict Carey - February 13, 2017 nytimes.com/2017/02/13/health/psychiatric-drugs-prescriptions.html?_r=1
[5] Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs, Benedict Carey - February 13, 2017 nytimes.com/2017/02/13/health/psychiatric-drugs-prescriptions.html?_r=1
[6] Psychiatric Abuse of the Elderly, CCHR International cchrint.org/issues/protectelderly/
