Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
|
|
|
The Weekend Herald revealed that
the claims of widespread mistreatment that were previously confined to the
former Porirua and Lake Alice asylums encompass most of the closed mental
hospitals from Auckland to Otago. They include the alleged beating
of 11-year-old Clement Matthews in But the police have re-opened
their investigation of the death, after another former child patient told of
seeing a male nurse pull Clement violently to the floor and kick him hard on
his back. Several other ex-patients
contacted the Herald over the weekend to recount their own experiences of
abuse. Some former mental hospital staff also told of witnessing colleagues
mistreat patients. More than half were at Porirua -
in the days before it became a modern mental health unit. About 15 complaints
relate to Oakley, Kingseat and The allegations include sexual
assaults and beatings by staff and patients, use of electric-shock therapy
and drug injections as punishment, being over-sedated and being locked in
solitary confinement for long periods. Nearly 70 of the claims have been
filed in the High Court, each seeking compensation of up to $500,000 and
exemplary damages approaching $50,000. Another 40 are close to being filed. Attorney-General Margaret Wilson
said the Government was treating the claims seriously. After investigating
the court claims it would decide whether to hold an inquiry. One man put in His parents, who were at first
denied access to him, agreed not to lay an official complaint, in return for
his transfer from the high-security forensic ward into an open ward. Another former patient, Johannus
Roes, now 45, spent about 11 years in four hospitals. He was first admitted aged 11
after he broke out of solitary confinement at a boys' home, where he had been
sent for burglaries. His complaints are of excessive
solitary confinement - six months on one occasion with the only break being
daily walks in the yard - and needlessly being given large doses of many
medications. "I was like a zombie for a
day or so and then it was back into disrupting them," he said of his
time at Oakley. Mr Chapman said yesterday that he
was not aware of these cases but the allegations were broadly similar to
others. Leading psychiatrists interviewed
by the Herald said their profession had leaped ahead since the 1960s, with
better treatments and improved access to training. They did not witness any of the
alleged abuses and would not have tolerated them if they had. Dr Allen Fraser, chairman of the
New Zealand national committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College
of Psychiatrists, said he was uneasy about the "trial by media"
surrounding the claims. He acknowledged that a number of
mental health inquiries had been held, especially regarding He said a
difficulty for any inquiry would be that many of the psychiatrists practising
in |