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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The number of claims alleging
abuse and mistreatment at psychiatric hospitals during the 1960s and 70s is
continuing to climb, as more former patients come forward. The Crown Law Office
says there are now 77 individual claims from former patients - many of them
relating to Porirua Hospital. A lawyer who represents
a group of former patients says talks with the Crown on an out-of-court
deal for them have already begun. Roger Chapman says many
former patients do not want to re-live their traumatic experiences in court
and issues of responsibility cannot be addressed through litigation. The government says it
is still developing alternative options for those former patients who
want to avoid court cases. An investigation by
TVNZ's Sunday programme revealed that children as young as eight were placed
in a psychiatric institution because no one close to them knew how to control
their behaviour. Many of the children
were from broken homes and in the care of child welfare and many ended up in
Porirua Hospital - New Zealand's largest psychiatric institution in the 1960s
and 70s. Now those children are
adults and they say they are emotionally scarred by their childhood
experiences. They told Sunday they
never suffered from mental illness as children and were simply victims of
circumstance and the social and health systems of the day. A group of them began a
class action against the government - seeking an inquiry and compensation. In statements of claim
before the High Court they name former staff of the hospital who they say
physically and mentally abused them when they were at their most vulnerable. Lawyer Sonja Cooper
says more than 100 former mental health patients claim they were physically
and sexually abused at the hospital during the 1960s and 70s. |
