By Colton McAllister, State Politics Reporter

Despite pouring nearly $140 billion a year into mental health services, up from about $40 billion two decades ago, rates of mental illness keep climbing. Now a growing number of Sacramentans are asking the tough question: Is the current system actually making things worse?

This weekend, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a nonprofit mental health watchdog, brings a hard-hitting limited-time exhibit to Old Sacramento. Titled on mental health human rights abuse, the interactive display runs July 2nd through July 5th at the historic Union Hotel, 1028 2nd Street at K Street. Doors open daily 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a Grand Opening event at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 3rd. Admission is free.

Visitors will walk through survivor accounts, historical displays, and current data exposing psychiatric practices that many say have gone wrong. Among the alarming stats: 6.1 million U.S. children are on psychiatric drugs, including over 223,000 babies still in cribs. The exhibit also shines light on reported abuse in for-profit psych hospitals and cases of patients right here in our community being electroshocked without full informed consent.

While psychiatry and Big Pharma rack up record profits, questions linger. Are patients truly getting better? Are the treatments evidence-based? And why are so many turning toward holistic approaches after saying the drugs caused more harm than help?

The exhibit lays out the information and lets people decide for themselves. The questions this exhibit raises touch the lives of nearly everyone and are important topics for the future of our society.

If you’ve ever wondered why the mental health system keeps failing despite the massive cash dump, this is worth checking out. Old Sacramento’s right in our backyard. Stop by, look around, and make up your own mind.