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Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
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Pressure is mounting on the
Government to formally recognise the systematic abuse of psychiatric patients
in the wake of a haunting report into life behind institution walls. Those fighting for recognition
have been both shocked and buoyed by the report of a confidential forum set
up to allow former patients to tell their story. Released on Thursday, it used the
combined voice of 400 former patients to paint a culture of sexual abuse,
violence, humiliation and the use of medication and electroconvulsive therapy
as punishments. A Wellington woman who spent most
of her teen years at Kimberley Hospital, near Levin, in the 1960s because of
acute epilepsy, said the Government should stump up to ensure people like her
had a semblance of a normal life. Linda Ryan, now 55, said: '
"It was rotten, for the whole six years, 24 hours a day". "I could have been an
animal." She has vivid memories of being
hit by staff with hairbrushes and keys and being held down and given
paraldehyde against her will to subdue fits. Staff would tip her out of bed and
pour cold water on her to wake her up. She had a scar on her abdomen from
an operation when she was 12, but did not know what it was for. She had been told that her medical
records were lost. They were fighting for an apology
-- and in some cases compensation -- for the years of abuse they suffered. He said the fact that former staff
members had also come forward to the forum to confirm patients stories should
be motivation enough for the Government to act. "It needs to look seriously
at some form of non-adversarial way of resolving this." The Government has not ruled out
apologising or compensating former patients who suffered at the hands of
state-run facilities from the 1940s to 1992, but says it will need time
before making a decision.
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