CCHR Calls for Increased Oversight of Human Rights Abuses in Youth Mental Hospitals

LOS ANGELES - July 18, 2026 - PRLog -- By CCHR International

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has revoked the license of a residential behavioral treatment facility for juveniles, prompting the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, to renew its call for behavioral hospitals to be subject to greater oversight and sanctions when systemic patient abuse is found.[1] The concerned facility was cited over video evidence of a staff member allegedly striking a restrained client, along with repeated failures to protect girls from harm, violence, discrimination, and disrespectful treatment.

Paris Hilton has acclaimed the decision as validation of her long-running campaign to close behavioral schools where the abuse she endured as a teenager occurred in 1999. In September 2020, she released her compelling account of her experiences in the documentary This is Paris.

CCHR praised Hilton's years of courageous advocacy and her work on legislative reforms to protect troubled youth from abuse in behavioral facilities.

CCHR International's own exposure of the Utah behavioral facility dates back to the 1990s when it was under a different ownership. Collaborating with 60 Minutes II in 2000, the news program's expose revealed patient abuse, which ultimately led it being sold to a new behavioral company.

In June 2015, CCHR began filing complaints about abuses in the residential behavioral sector with Members of Congress and state legislators, including in Utah. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice and HHS Office of Inspector General investigated behavioral facilities for billing fraud across nine states—a case that case settled for $122 million.

In October 2020, flanking the release of This is Paris, CCHR posted 32 cases of patient abuses at behavioral hospitals on its website.[2]

CCHR has supported Hilton's efforts since 2020, which include the federal Stop Institutional Child Abuse law she helped get passed in 2024 and an expanded Utah law in 2025 establishing a Child Protection Ombudsman with authority to investigate psychiatric abuse of children. CCHR also helped secure a Maryland law in 2025 banning physical restraint during child transport to facilities and empowering the Attorney General to take action against violators.

A landmark 2024 Senate Finance Committee report, "Warehouses of Neglect," indicted some hospitals in major chains were subjecting children to routine abuse, inappropriate restraints, unsafe conditions, and inadequate care.  For example:

• A former patient said that he "felt like a zombie" because he was so drugged.
• The Salt Lake Tribune's coverage of a 14-year-old Oregonian's harrowing out-of-state placement at a Utah behavioral facility shed light on her experience being physically restrained and chemically sedated over 30 times over four months. This prompted Oregon officials to fly to Utah to investigate and ultimately return the child to Oregon. Oregon State Senator Sara Gelser Blouin described a child upon her return: "And, what they sent back to us was a broken, injured, frightened child with more trauma than she went there with."[3]

Senate Committee Chair Senator Ron Wyden called for shutting off the "fire hose of federal funding" to those facilities found to have abused residents—a recommendation CCHR International President Jan Eastgate says must be implemented. In 2025, Eastgate submitted testimony supporting Utah Senate Bill 297 to strengthen oversight of the troubled-teen industry, which Hilton had championed. Eastgate's testimony detailed ongoing abuses in Utah's facilities, including repeated restraints and high assault rates.

Despite these red flags, abuses persisted. CCHR reiterates that the behavioral sector reveals decades of documented abuses—preventable harm to vulnerable children demand full accountability. "Taxpayer money should not fund any facility that warehouses and traumatizes youth. Only the closure of these operations will ensure full protection from the mental health harm some of these facilities cause," Eastgate said.

About CCHR: CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz and has helped achieve hundreds of protections and reforms for mental health patients.

Sources:

[1] "DHHS revokes license of Provo Canyon School's Springville campus amid lawsuit over misconduct, neglect," ABC4 Utah, 6 July 2026

[2] Jessica Miller, "Provo Canyon School's history of abuse accusations spans decades, far beyond Paris Hilton," The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Sept. 2020, updated 12 Oct. 2020

[3] U.S.  Senate Finance Committee, "Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities," pages 33-98, www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rtf_report_warehouses_of_neglect.pdf