Allegations of Abuse in Institutions
	Psychiatric Hospitals Index July-Dec 2004 Index
	The Nelson Mail July 3 2004 Patient abuse claims on rise by Sheriee Smith Complaints of serious mistreatment of patients at Ngawhatu Psychiatric Hospital are mounting. Since the Government announced last month it was looking at more than 200 complaints of abuse at psychiatric hospitals around New Zealand, nine former patients at Nelson's Ngawhatu Hospital have lodged claims with Wellington lawyer Roger Chapman. Mr Chapman said the number of complaints was steadily growing and he had phone calls every day from people alleging they had been abused at psychiatric health hospitals around the country. All of the Nelson complaints related to patients in the 1960s and 1970s, who say they were victims of sexual and physical abuse by staff members and were subject to electric shock therapy as punishment. Mr Chapman said a former staff member witnessed experimentation in electric shock therapy being carried out on patients - sometimes several times a day - during her time working there. Mr Chapman said the inquiry was still in the early stages and he now had a fulltime employee working on gathering details and information about each case. ``The impression I get from patients generally is that what they have experienced is very hard for them to talk about,'' he said. ``Some of them are quite distraught, some are pretty angry.'' He said there was no ``quick fix'' to the complaints and how long they took to be resolved depended on when the Government started to address the issues and seek a resolution. Nearly 70 of the nationwide claims have been filed in the High Court, each seeking compensation of up to $500,000 and exemplary damages approaching $50,000. Prime Minister Helen Clark has said the Government is taking the allegations seriously and a decision would be made after they had been looked at as to whether a ``more formal'' inquiry should be carried out.