Family: crisis team 'fails'

Finn Higgins. Photo / Supplied

A secret "high level" report has demanded improvements to the mental health system following the death of a talented young Wellington man, whose family believe he was failed by authorities.

Finn Higgins, a 26-year-old IT worker, took his own life in February 2008 amid allegations that the mental health crisis team had failed to respond promptly and appropriately to his repeated pleas for help.

His sister Zoe Gilbert says there was a mix-up between police and the mental health crisis team on who should attend, leaving Higgins able to leave his home and take his own life.

The Health Ministry's director of mental health, Dr David Chaplow, confirmed the "high level" report had been carried out at the request of the Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson.

Prepared by solicitor John Edwards, it investigated the potential for improvements in the way mental health workers and police worked alongside each other, to protect patients.

Chaplow could not yet reveal the recommendations of the report as this was suppressed by coroner Ian Smith after a hearing this week into the death. However, he wanted it made public quickly.

There could be up to 100,000 people in mental health care at any one time, he said, and sometimes things went wrong and these needed to be examined on a "how we can improve" basis.

But he added the ministry had fulfilled its obligations to the family and the Health and Disability Commissioner.

Zoe Gilbert said she would welcome recognition and acknowledgement of the failures in her brother's care.

She missed her brother, a talented and compassionate man who had been in contact with mental health workers only for a short time. He had suffered from depression after the breakdown of a relationship. His condition was further complicated because he suffered from Asperger's syndrome.

"Finn tried very hard to live on the day he committed suicide," Gilbert said. "We find it hard to comprehend how a distressed and vulnerable person could have been neglected so badly by services that were supposed to be delivering care and support."

The report was done after she and her mother complained to the Health and Disability Commissioner that two previous Capital and Coast District Health Board reports had been substandard.

The DHB would not comment until the coroner's finding had been made, and the police said they were waiting to view the report.