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Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
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The Government is going to
consider compensation for former psychiatric hospital patients but it says
the issue is complex and many don't want money. Health Minister Pete Hodgson was
speaking after the release yesterday of a report by a special forum which was
set up in 2005 to hear accounts of ill-treatment suffered by patients between
1940 and 1992. The report said 493 people came to
the forum, most of them former patients with tales of the neglect and abuse
they suffered, either at the hands of other patients or staff members. The forum was set up in 2005 after
several former patients went public with accounts of their miserable lives in
the hospitals, which have long since closed. Mr Hodgson said yesterday it was
not established to sidestep compensation, and he was going to take advice on
what was appropriate. "Most of them did not ask for
it," he said. "A blanket approach isn't the
right answer." Mr Hodgson said he didn't want to
see a "QC versus QC" situation where former patients had to prove
they were eligible for compensation, and have their accounts picked apart. The forum's report did not
identify any of the former patients and did not publish individual accounts
of life in any of the hospitals, but it did present the common themes it said
had emerged. These included:
Many had been afraid of other patients or staff, and had suffered or
witnessed physical or sexual abuse;
They said staff had been callous, threatening or abusive, and they
were often told they would never recover, never get a job or have children;
Most felt they had little choice about the treatment they received,
and said they were cajoled or bullied into agreeing to have electric shock
treatment;
Those who were in the hospitals as children or adolescents described
their desolate lives. Many said they had not known why they were there. Mr Hodgson said the forum, under
the chairmanship of Judge Patrick Mahoney, had been a success and he was
considering extending it to all people who had been institutionalised. "We'd need a pretty darn good
reason for not extending it," he said. Judge Mahoney was asked at the
press conference he held with Mr Hodgson whether any evidence of criminality
had been disclosed in the accounts given by the former patients. He said the forum had worked with
a police liaison officer, and some issues had been referred, but the forum
itself was not seeking prosecutions. Mr Hodgson said the question of a government
apology had been raised by some former patients but, like compensation, that
was a difficult issue. He said the abuse had happened at
a time when society had been very different, there were far fewer drugs
available than there were today, and there had been inadequate trained staff.
The Green Party said there should
be compensation and a full apology. "These vulnerable people were
supposed to be in the care of trained professionals whose job it was to help
them get well, but instead it's clear that many were mistreated and
abused," said MP Sue Bradford. "They deserve some
recognition that the government of the day failed to ensure their safety and
at the very least a heart-felt apology should be forthcoming." Mr Hodgson said the forum process
had been a huge success and the Government was now considering whether to
extend it to other wards of the state – for example children cared for in
foster homes. But he said compensation was a
separate question. "No government can compensate
people on a willy nilly basis. We do have to somehow work out how to secure
evidence so that we can come to a considered view about whether this person
might have a case for litigation," he said on Radio New Similarly if the Government was to
apologise it needed to define exactly what it was apologising for and to
whom. That would also be a long and complex process.
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