CLEARWATER, Fla. - Marylandian -- The month of May is annually observed as "Mental Health Awareness Month". This May, the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR, is urging citizens to more closely examine the multi-billion-dollar mental health industry and decide for themselves if the outcomes and lack of results are worth the cost.

According to a 2023 report in Open Minds Market Intelligence, in 2022, the U.S. invested $329 billion in total behavioral health spending. A 94% increase since 2012. Total behavioral health spending in the U.S. includes spending for mental health and substance use.

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This spending amounts to over $1,564 a year for every man woman and child in the U.S. which is the highest in the world by far.

As revealed in a new Commonwealth Fund report, "the United States spends substantially more than any other wealthy nation on health care, yet it has a lower life expectancy and a higher suicide rate than its peer nations."

According to Diane Stein, president of CCHR in Florida, one likely reason for the inflated mental health treatment expenditures is an alliance between the psychiatric industry and the pharmaceutical industry.

"No one is looking at the statistics," says Stein. "Politicians sign the bills for increased spending on psychiatric services while the overall state of mental health is declining in our country. Drug commercials give people hope of decreasing their mental woes while those woes keep increasing. There's a real disconnect."

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CCHR invites you to stop by their offices at 109 Fort Harrison Ave. to learn in more detail how the psychiatric industry has failed its patients, how you can help others and what some of the alternatives are for people who are looking for solutions.

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.