CCHR condemns $12 billion child and adolescent behavioral market for forcing children into psychiatric institutions, leaving parents powerless to secure their release.

By CCHR International
The Mental Health Industry Watchdog
September 13, 2024

Children and teens are being estranged from their families after parents, following psychiatric advice, admit them to psychiatric hospitals where they are drugged and abused, deepening the divide. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health industry watchdog, is warning families about the lucrative child and adolescent behavioral market that profits from pathologizing them as “oppositional defiant disorder,” “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD) and “conduct disorders.”

This exploitation of vulnerable children and families is fueled by a booming industry. The U.S. behavioral market was valued at an estimated $83.78 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $132.46 billion by 2032.[1] According to one study, $12 billion was used to treat children and adolescents. Outpatient treatment accounts for nearly 60% of all mental health expenditures for young people, with a large portion—more than $4 billion—from school-based programs. Inpatient treatment accounts for about 33% of total expenditures for young people ($3.87 billion); prescription drugs account for over $1.06 billion for 0-17-year-olds.[2]

Treatment in psychiatric hospitals is especially risky, as evidenced by a recent New York Times article about Acadia Healthcare,[3] a major for-profit chain of behavioral hospitals, and a series of current lawsuits against Universal Health Services, another for-profit chain. UHS is facing $930 million in lawsuits over allegations of negligence, physical abuse, and falsified medical records to extend hospital stays.[4] The company is also appealing a $535 million verdict against them earlier this year a 16-year-old patient raped a 13-year-old patient at one of its facilities. As Patel Law points out, “When in a behavioral health setting, the individuals in the ward are extremely vulnerable. They are owed a duty of care to protect them from potential injuries. In this case, the behavioral health clinic failed in its duty of care to keep the patient safe from harm.”[5]

Recently, Collin Gosselin recounted his harrowing childhood and the traumatic experience of being institutionalized at 11 years old. Collin, known from reality TV with his parents and 7 siblings, begged to be saved from the mental health facility owned by UHS, where his mother had placed him. The U.S. Sun showed how he was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder, and was put on multiple psychiatric drugs, before being taken to Fairmount Behavioral Health System in Pennsylvania, on May 6, 2016, as an inpatient. [6]

Fairmount Behavioral Health is a for-profit psychiatric hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, operated by UHS. According to the law firm Levy Konigsberg, “Civil lawsuits and criminal charges have been filed regarding Fairmount Behavioral Health and its staff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, following a string of alleged assaults, rapes.”[7]

Beginning in 2015 and ending at the end of 2019—during the time Collin was hospitalized—there were around 100 police responses to the facility on suspicion of rape, assault, and other sexual offenses, according to records.[8]

Collin was lucky to be released with the help of his father and later joined the Marines but was dismissed after public exposure that he had multiple psychiatric conditions. A mental health evaluation has since cleared him of these diagnoses.[9]

Collin’s release and subsequent struggle highlight the broader issues with psychiatric diagnoses. So-called oppositional defiant disorder and conduct‐dissocial disorder, are grouped into a label, “disruptive behavior and dissocial disorder.”[10] According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, this includes those who have “negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures,” such as a parent.[11] Childhood mental and behavioral health disorders account for the largest category of spending of health dollars for children.[12]

The DSM is the basis for this, which by 1994, contained 32 childhood “psychiatric disorders.”[13] These are highly subjective criteria based on opinion, not science. In 2019, a study published in Psychiatry Research concluded that psychiatric diagnoses are scientifically worthless as tools to identify discrete mental health disorders. Dr. Kate Allsopp, lead researcher from the University of Liverpool, said: “Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice.” Professor Peter Kinderman added, “The diagnostic system wrongly assumes that all distress results from disorder, and relies heavily on subjective judgments about what is normal.”[14]

Prof. Allen Frances, the former Chairman of the DSM-IV Task Force said that the manual created “false epidemics” of ADHD. “There are no objective tests in psychiatry—no X-ray, laboratory or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder….,” he stated.[15] The inclusion of a disorder in the DSM is done by consensus vote.

This explains how 6.1 million American children up to the age of 17 are prescribed psychotropic drugs, and how easy it was for Collin Gosselin to be detained in a psychiatric facility.

Psychologists and psychiatrists are making a business out of so-called “family estrangement.” In 2019, one U.S. psychologist’s survey claimed that 27% of Americans were estranged from a family member. Estrangement could be caused by the parents’ disagreement with a child’s sexuality, or romantic partner, the impact of a divorce, and even political differences. They either exploit parents who feel powerless to control unruly children or “normalize” a child’s estrangement, encouraging it further—either way, it can end with families being broken—fueled by unscientific advice and conflicts of interest.

Many parents realize too late that they’ve been misled and then have to fight to get their children discharged from psychiatric facilities after admitting them. WFAA News in Texas did a ground-breaking series on this, reporting, “Voluntarily checking into psychiatric hospital, easy. Checking out? Not so much.” This was especially the case when the hospital could charge $1,000 a day to detain a teen.[16]

On September 9, The New York Times further exposed Acadia Healthcare, writing: “Unless lawyers intervened, Acadia often held these patients—some for nearly a week—until their insurance ran out, maximizing payouts for the hospital.” Acadia’s response was its usual—that its patient quality care and “medical necessity” drive its business. But as one New York Times journalist pointed out, “When every single person you’re speaking to brings up the same thing, unprompted—when you look down at your notes and think ‘That person from Georgia and a different person who doesn’t know them saying the same thing’—that gives you real confidence in the scope of the reporting and the accuracy of it.”[17]

The entire industry is plagued by abuse, driven by an arbitrary system that redefines family and children’s behaviors as “mental disorders,” making youths vulnerable to involuntary detainment until their insurance coverage is exhausted. CCHR is actively working to end this exploitation by alerting legislators nationwide and advocating for the closure of abusive facilities.

CCHR also urges parents to report any incidents where a behavioral hospital refuses to release their child to either CCHR or an attorney.

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[1] “U.S. Behavioral Health Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis…,” Fortune Business Insights, 5 Sept. 2024, https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-behavioral-health-market-105298

[2] Roland Sturm, Jeanne S. Ringel, et al., “Mental Health Care for Youth: Who Gets It? How Much Does It Cost? Who Pays? Where Does the Money Go?” RAND, 2001, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4541.html

[3] Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas, “How a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients: Acadia Healthcare is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts, a Times investigation found,” New York Times, 1 Sept. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/issue/todayspaper/2024/09/02/todays-new-york-times

[4] Laura French, “$930 million lawsuit against Cumberland Children’s Hospital now underway in Virginia,” WTVR CBS 6, 9 Sept. 2024, https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/cumberland-hospital-lawsuit-sep-9-2024

[5] “UHS to Appeal $535M Negligence Decision After Rape,” Patel Law, 30 Aug. 2024, https://www.patellawteam.com/uhs-to-appeal-535m-negligence-decision-after-rape/

[6] Emma Parry, “HELP ME! Collin Gosselin reads letter he wrote as a kid to dad begging to be saved from mental hospital after ‘abuse’ by mom Kate,” The U.S. Sun, 10 Sept. 2024, https://www.the-sun.com/tv/12360533/collin-gosselin-letter-dad-begging-saved-mental-hospital/

[7] “Fairmount Behavioral Health Sexual Abuse Lawsuits,” Levy Law, https://www.levylaw.com/fairmount-behavioral-health-sexual-abuse-lawsuits/

[8] https://www.levylaw.com/fairmount-behavioral-health-sexual-abuse-lawsuits/

[9] Emma Parry, “HELP ME! Collin Gosselin reads letter he wrote as a kid to dad begging to be saved from mental hospital after ‘abuse’ by mom Kate,” The U.S. Sun, 10 Sept. 2024, https://www.the-sun.com/tv/12360533/collin-gosselin-letter-dad-begging-saved-mental-hospital/

[10] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/02/14/new-diagnostic-manual-with-adhd-listed-could-turn-childhood-into-a-mental-disorder/ citing Michael B. First, Steven H. Hyman, Wolfgang Gaebel, “Innovations and changes in the ICD‐11 classification of mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders,” et al., World Psychiatry, 2 Jan. 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6313247/

[11] Bruce Walker, “Psychiatry Enters Dangerous Territory,” The New American, 20 May 2010, https://thenewamerican.com/us/healthcare/psychiatry-enters-dangerous-territory/

[12] https://www.apa.org/about/policy/child-adolescent-mental-behavioral-health

[13] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/12/16/cchr-reviews-a-year-of-child-abuse-allegations-against-troubled-teen-behavioral-institutions/

[14] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/02/10/mental-health-funding-delivered-system-in-shambles/, citing: “Study finds psychiatric diagnosis to be ‘scientifically meaningless,’” Neuroscience, 8 Jul. 2019, https://neurosciencenews.com/meaningless-psychiatric-diagnosis-14434/

[15] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/02/14/new-diagnostic-manual-with-adhd-listed-could-turn-childhood-into-a-mental-disorder/, citing: Allen Frances, “Most Active Kids Don’t Have ADHD,” Psychology Today, 11 Mar. 2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/saving-normal/201403/most-active-kids-don-t-have-adhd; Allen Frances, “Psychiatric Fads and Overdiagnosis,” Psychology Today, 2 June 2010, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201006/psychiatric-fads-and-overdiagnosis

[16] Mark Smith and Brett Shipp, “Voluntarily checking into psychiatric hospital, easy. Checking out? Not so much,” WFAA, 17 Nov. 2017, https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/voluntarily-checking-into-psychiatric-hospital-easy-checking-out-not-so-much/489740526

[17] Emmet Lidner, “Exposing a Hospital Chain’s Disturbing Practices,” The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/insider/acadia-healthcare.html