BY RUTH GRAY
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - Several events during the last few months have put the spotlight on the decline of mental health services in New Zealand.
On September 28 Eric Gellatly, diagnosed as a schizophrenic 15 years ago, was shot dead by police after a 21-hour siege in the southernmost city of Invercargill. A couple of weeks earlier, the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) announced the closure of the Templeton Centre, a hospital near Christ-church that houses more than 400 mentally disabled people. Meanwhile at the Christchurch Sunnyside psychiatric hospital, nurses have walked off the job because of dangerous working conditions.
In an interview with the Press of Christchurch 10 days after their son's shooting, Eric Gellatly's parents blamed Invercargill's shortage of skilled staff, lack of a permanent psychiatrist, and the lack of secure residential care for the death. The fact that "Eric was left to roam freely, to get tangled up in shooting incidents after earlier brushes with the law says it all," said William Gellatly. "He needed secure care and that doesn't mean a police or prison cell. He should have been in safe psychiatric care out of harm's way."
Some 300 people attended Gellatly's funeral at which participants described his battle with schizophrenia. Two speakers at the funeral said that Gellatly's death highlighted the lack of services for the mentally ill.
A subsequent inquiry into the shooting, commissioned by Southern Health and Healthcare Otago, found that psychiatric care for Gellatly was inadequate. The report blamed a lack of resources, a lack of staff and training, and heavy workloads.
A survey released in October by the Schizophrenia Fellowship clearly shows that the problem of inadequate psychiatric services is nationwide. Summarizing the results of the survey, the Fellowship said the picture generally is of "hospitals which are hard to get into, overworked community health teams, and general under-resourcing."
Reduction of psychiatric beds
Since 1980 at least 3,836 psychiatric hospital beds have
been eliminated following government moves to cut funding,
reduce services, and restructure health services along the
lines of a capitalist business.
The radical restructuring of mental health care in this country is often presented as a progressive step that takes mentally ill people out of a cloistered environment and puts them "in the community." The reality for many people, however, was illustrated by a report from Wellington in September. When Wellington landlord Dean Bevan blamed health authorities for the state of his flat, which was rented to a psychiatric patient, the public health body, Capital Coast Health, washed its hands of the matter, declaring that the mentally ill had the right to live as they please. The flat reeked of urine, mold and litter.
In Christchurch nurses at the Sunnyside psychiatric hospital have walked off the job on several occasions recently saying patients and staff are at risk because of overcrowding and understaffing.
John Skinner, a former Sunnyside patient interviewed by the Press, said that during his stay there two 27-bed wards had 35 people in each of them. Some patients had to sleep in a waiting room and office. He said there was little privacy or continuity of care, and that getting admitted was almost impossible until the person needing treatment had reached a crisis point.
Closure of Templeton Centre
In another attack on mental health services, the SRHA
has decided to close the Templeton center for the mentally
disabled in the face of widespread opposition from parents
and staff. The majority of the 400 patients are to be
placed into "community care."
A Militant Labor Forum, held in Christchurch on October 13, heard several speakers who have been involved with the protests against the closure - protests which have included two public rallies of around 100 people each. Last year 700 people rallied to protest the possibility of closure.
Heather Absalom-Smith of the Templeton Parents' Association said that "the closure is being sold in a very humanitarian way. We are told that our children can lead better, more fulfilling lives in the community." The reality of this proposal she said, "is that our children are part of the privatization of health services. Instead of being treated according to your needs you will be treated according to what is left over." The Parents' Association has been campaigning for a sheltered village at Templeton which could utilize the extensive recreational and vocational facilities and qualified staff already there.
Another speaker on the panel, Ivan Finlayson, a representative of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE), agreed that the aim of closing Templeton is to cut costs. "It will allow them to package Templeton residents like commodities and sell care rights to the highest bidder."
Mark Robertson, a staff member and the convener of NUPE at Templeton, told forum participants that government cutbacks during recent years have meant that current funding of the center is lower than in 1989, despite having 25 extra patients. As funding has dropped the center often relies on parents' donations to keep important programs running. Robertson explained that the cutbacks also mean that once a patient leaves the center all contact is cut off after three months and that it is almost impossible to get admitted as a patient.
New prisons
Giving further glimpses of a mental health system in
crisis, police in Wellington state that one regional
hospital is sending suicidal patients home after getting
them to sign a contract promising not to kill themselves.
While closing psychiatric facilities, the government has announced plans to construct special prison wings for mentally disturbed inmates. According to the Press, Minister of Justice Doug Graham said the move was "in response to the prison system's having to deal with an increasing number of disturbed people and because the Justice Department was concerned about the suicide rate in prisons."
Ruth Gray is a member of the Engineers Union in Christchurch.