Posts by Hilary Stace
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Hard News: Media Take: the poor health…, in reply to Neil,
Neil, I admire your faith in the Act and the system, and maybe it works like that most of the time. But there are numerous examples when rights are removed for a long time, without sound basis or even clinical evidence. I've previously written about Ashley Peacock who has been held under the MH Act for years (and I don't want to go there now as we might finally have some progress and I don't want to jeopardise anything) but he was denied the right to dental treatment for several years on the mistaken assumption he was too 'dangerous' to be treated. Finally after he had several rotten and abscessed teeth removed under general anaesthetic and without incident, his behaviour and health dramatically improved.
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Hard News: Media Take: the poor health…, in reply to Neil,
For those clinicians and others unfamiliar with autism, a meltdown can look very much like psychosis with a possible risk of harm to self or others. For those skilled at interacting with people with autism there are ways of changing the behaviour by avoiding the stressful situations which can cause meltdowns (such as sudden change, sensory overload etc). We have examples of people with autism being caught under the Mental Health Act because 'experts' did not recognise or know how to deal with a meltdown or other common autism behaviours in response to stress or anxiety. Sometimes they are stuck under the Act for years.
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Hard News: Media Take: the poor health…, in reply to Neil,
Because it has no meaning in terms of DSM or ICD. It has been used to incarcerated people with autism by clinicians with little knowledge or understanding of autism, its presentation or how to interact with autistic people. Autism is not a mental disorder. That's just one group of people who have had their human rights removed because of the MH Act - there are likely others.
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Hard News: Media Take: the poor health…, in reply to Neil,
Out of date in its use of term 'mental disorder' and other terms and assumptions, its processes for monitoring and complaints, lack of consumer voice, and lots of other ways.
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By the way Social Bonds are NZ Government contracts for social service provision with private providers and investors who only get a return on their investment when they have reached the targets specified in the contract. New Zealand’s first recently signed social bond aims to get 1700 unemployed people with mental health conditions into work over 5 years. An Australian company will deliver the service to eligible people living in the South Auckland region.
However, it can also be seen as privatisation and undermining of current services. And the contractor could just target easier cases in order to meet narrow targets.
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The 1992 Mental Health Act needs to be urgently reviewed. It was partially a response to the first Mason Report (1988), reports of abuse in the 'bins' and the system itself, and the deinstitutionalisation process then underway. The second Mason Inquiry and Report in the mid 1990s showed it was not the answer even then. Today it is all powerful, overrides our Bill of Rights Act and international rights Conventions, and is way out of date.
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I have a house because three people close to me died.
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The link to the 60 minutes documentary of the drug experimentation on institutionalised girls no longer works, and I cannot locate it. But here is a newspaper account of the documentary. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/2819957/State-drug-test-victim-claim
This aspect alone requires an inquiry and some accountability. There are also allegations of drug testing and experimentation in other psychopaedic institutions including dosing of disabled people with LSD.
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This was one of the first posts I ever wrote for Access – 3 years ago. I am pleased to see the call for a full inquiry and apology is gaining traction again – most recently by a commitment by Jacinda Ardern for an inquiry when the Government changes.
Since I wrote this post more and more people have come forward to tell their stories. Robert Martin’s story of growing up as an abused state ward, Becoming a Person, was published and he now sits on a UN Committee overseeing implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Elizabeth Stanley’s The Road to Hell, telling the harrowing stories of dozens of children in state care, was published last year.
Yesterday, TV3’s The Hui featured powerful testimonies of four men. Mihi Forbes just let them talk. But the Government does not seem to get it. A letter from Anne Tolley and maybe a few thousand dollars is not the answer. We as NZers were all complicit in this, we all allowed it to happen, and we were all harmed by it. We need a full inquiry and then a full apology on behalf of the state (all NZers) to those who the state did not protect when they were at their most vulnerable. This is how we can really understand how to stop such ongoing abuse and not to let it happen again.
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Apparently 10 agencies already handing over data. Wonder who they are?
Interview on Kathryn Ryan RNZ at the moment with MSD man who heads their current work on individual client data. Apparently this policy is driven by the Minister against much of the officials’ advice. This current interview is very interesting in that it is a public servant (who probably privately doesn’t support this policy) having to defend it and also the Minister and Government, and being grilled by the interviewer with leading questions like, “Do you truly believe… ?”. No wonder there is so much misery and stress across much of the public service at the moment. They are supposed to be the servants of the public, not the mouthpieces of the Minister.