Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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Now just a collection
of run-down rural buildings with cows munching grass outside, in the 1970s it
was the place where the then teenaged Hake says he was punished with electric
shocks and painful injections by nurses and doctors trying to alter
youngsters' behaviour. He blames the
electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) for the return of his epilepsy and damaging
his short-term memory. His long-term memories
of the hospital remain sharp and painful. He vividly describes his body
straining under ECT without anaesthetic or muscle relaxant. The pain after he
fell back on the bed was "like a sledge-hammer banging against your
head". But he and two other
former patients have weakened the power the old hospital has held over them
simply by visiting it. They obtained
permission from the owner, the Government's Residual Health Management Unit,
and went to the site, near Wanganui, in September with patient advocate Steve
Green, of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. "It has helped for
the old memories and pains I have been carrying," said Mr Halo, now 42. In 1975 he complained
to his grandmother, cleverly deceiving hospital censors with a Niuean speech
bubble beside a smiley face in an otherwise non-contentious English-language
letter. The message said: "I have been given electric shock by the
people, mum. The pain is very bad." This letter was the
first link in a chain that led to the closure of the hospital's child and
adolescent unit and the Government much later apologising and paying $10.7
million compensation to 183 former patients who were mistreated. Mr Green urged more
former patients to consider visiting the site before it is sold, because of
the sense of closure they could experience. He offered to accompany them. But he said closure
would be incomplete until psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks, who until 1977 ran
the unit, which operated from 1972 to 1978, was held to account. The police are
investigating criminal complaints against Dr Leeks, who lives in Melbourne,
but have yet to decide whether to lay charges and seek his extradition to New
Zealand. An Auckland University
psychologist, Associate Professor Fred Seymour, said revisiting the site
would help some former patients, but could retraumatise others. Former patients
thinking about re-visiting Lake Alice should first consider discussing the
idea with a counsellor or therapist, he said. The Residual Health
Management Unit's chief executive, Graeme Bell, said requests to visit would
be considered case by case. The unit expects to
sell the property next year. Ill-treatment ·
Former Lake Alice Hospital patients were given electric-shock
therapy without anaesthetic as a punishment, youngsters were locked away with
insane adults and the drug paraldehyde was injected as a punishment. ·
The Government has paid $10.7 million to 183 former
patients abused between 1972 and 1977. ·
Patients are still waiting for police to decide whether to
prosecute former staff. |