LOS ANGELES, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Patient rape, sodomy, child
pornography, assault, murder and fraud committed by licensed mental health
professionals, are just some of the shocking but factual revelations made
public in a hard-hitting report released on the web today by international
psychiatric watchdog organization, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights
(CCHR).
The group says that while the nation is reeling from the recent Santana
High school shooting spree, officials should consider the quality of
counselors being used to treat traumatized students. On March 8, 2001, a
former Columbine High School counselor received probation for 20 years to
life, after pleading guilty to one count of sexual assault on a child from a
position of trust. At the time of his arrest, he was licensed and had
counseled Columbine High School students after the slayings there. The Deputy
District Attorney on his case, Lisa Scanga, stated, "He's a predator, and he's
going to reoffend, this man is a significant threat to the community."
According to Ms Jan Eastgate, International President of CCHR, the report
is CCHR's latest response to the mental health industry's long-term refusal to
take responsibility for increasing criminality within their ranks. "There were
more than 180 criminal convictions against psychiatrists and psychologists and
other mental health practitioners in 2000, up from 160 in 1999, and 100 in
1998; 53% were for health care fraud and 26% for sexual crimes against their
patients. These are not figures that the mental health industry wants known,
but everyone from health insurance fraud investigators, state, national and
international police organizations and attorneys, to the general public, have
a right to know."
Drawn from CCHR's own extensive international research, the report is a
database which provides documented information on convicted practitioners and
their crimes. "We have been aware of shifting psychiatric criminality for some
time, where a de-registered or convicted professional manages to flee a
country, only to set up practice and continue to commit the same crimes and
abuses in another country," said Eastgate.
"Part of the problem here is the lack of information promoted outside
closed mental health ranks. This database simply by-passes that problem, to
the benefit of police and other investigative and enforcement agencies," she
said.
But the database offers much more. The following is a small sample of the
convictions listed on the database. On the actual database, the full names of
those convicted are listed alphabetically, and are searchable by name, type of
crime, state and country.
-- Michigan counselor -- 25 to 38 years prison for sexually molesting
several young girls, aged 8 to 12, who were being treated at his youth
center.
-- New York psychiatrist -- Up to 15 years jail for stealing more than
$1.3 million from state Medicaid insurance.
-- Iowa counselor -- 10 years jail for sexually abusing 2 teenage boys at
the youth home where she worked.
-- North Carolina school counselor -- 6 years prison and 5 years probation
for molesting 2 boys, aged 10 and 13.
-- California counselor -- 6 years jail for sodomy charges involving teens
at a group home where he worked.
-- Rhode Island psychiatrist -- 30 years jail for shooting and killing a
man who intervened in a dispute between the psychiatrist and a store
clerk.
-- Texas counselor -- 40 years prison for sexual assault of a young boy
while the counselor had AIDS.
-- Texas psychiatrist -- 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $23 million
in restitution for insurance fraud involving workers' compensation
claims.
-- New York rape counselor -- 24 years prison for raping and robbing 3
women he'd visited for erotic massages.
Studies indicate that 10% of psychiatrists admit to sexually abusing their
patients -- that's roughly 15,000 psychiatrists worldwide. CCHR's database
reveals that many of the patients being sexually assaulted are children.
"With the increasing risk of this sort of practicing criminality, every
individual, parent, teacher or medical doctor has the right to be armed with
this information before placing their trust, and the well-being of their child
or themselves, in the hands of today's mental health practitioner, said
Eastgate.
On the matter of fraud, research shows:
-- 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.
Fraudulent schemes have included:
-- Billing insurers for therapy that was given to people already dead.
-- Billing insurance companies for having sex with patients as
"treatment."
-- Billing patients for watching TV, movies or playing "bingo."
-- With this sort of criminal ingenuity, an estimated $20-$40 billion is
defrauded in the mental health industry in any given year.
Established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology, CCHR investigates and
exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. Since then, it has been
responsible for more than 100 reforms to mental health and other laws that now
safeguard patients against criminal psychiatric abuse.
Eastgate said, "While our first and primary focus has always been the
rights and well-being of individuals who suffer abuse at the hands of mental
health professionals, our task is made much more difficult because of the
criminal impulse in the ranks. The release of this new database signals our
international intention, and commitment, to bringing this element where it
belongs -- back under the law."
For more information call Marla Filidei @ 800-869-2247 or visit
http://www.psychcrime.org
SOURCE Citizens Commission on Human Rights
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Related links:
http://www.psychcrime.org
CONTACT:
Marla Filidei of CCHR, 800-869-2247
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