CCHR United Kingdom

CCHRs are watchdogs over the mental health field. They are organisations staffed and supported by passionate people with an absolute commitment to protecting the rights of individuals who have been victimised and harmed in the field of mental health.

With over 280 chapters in 31 countries, CCHR UK campaigns to abolish invasive and harmful psychiatric practices like electro-shock treatments, abusive restraint procedures, psychosurgery, mental health screening and the use of mind-altering drugs which can worsen people's personalities and behaviour.  

The first CCHR was established by members of the Church of Scientology in 1969, in London and co-founded by the eminent Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York Health Science Centre.

While Dr. Szasz agreed that people had behavioural and other problems in life, he disagreed that these difficulties were diseases. They could not be confirmed with any blood test or other physical test, as can most medical conditions. They were simply a collection of unwanted behaviours, no less painful, but not diseases, as such.  He wrote:

"Psychiatric diagnoses are stigmatising labels, phrased to resemble medical diagnoses and applied to persons whose behaviour annoys or offends others."  If there is no mental illness, he argued, "There is no medical, moral, or legal justification for involuntary psychiatric interventions. They are crimes against humanity."

Dr. Szasz has earmed extraordinary praise for his uncompromising stand for justice, liberty and freedom. They are inherent characteristics in the like-minded individuals and groups with whom CCHR works in a shoulder-to-shoulder effort to bring about safety, security and humanity in the field of mental health.