TOP STORY: Mental unit 'failed my son'

LINDY ANDREWS AND REON SUDDABY
The mother of a mentally ill Hastings man who was hearing voices and threatened to blow up a petrol station, pleaded for psychiatric help for him just hours before he held up a bottle store armed with a loaf of bread.
Now Iriheke Pere's mother wants accountability from Hawke's Bay Hospital's mental health unit, which she claims failed her son and is responsible for him being jailed.
The woman is demanding to know why Pere, a patient of the Mental Health Unit for at least seven years, was two weeks overdue for a court-ordered injection of antipsychotic medication and why he was not hospitalised when it was clear he was in the grip of a potentially dangerous manic episode.
Pere's mother, who did not want to be named, said her son should be in a psychiatric ward, not in a prison.
On November 11 last year, Pere, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was taken into police custody for psychiatric assessment after his behaviour raged out of control.
He had been released from prison just days before.
During a 10-week sentence for theft, Pere's oral medication was reduced and his final injection was somehow overlooked. His mother said her son's mood deteriorated after his release and he became psychotic.
Pere's partner begged the mental-health crisis team to commit him to the intensive psychiatric care unit for treatment, but was told there was nothing wrong with him. Instead, the 25-year-old, who was suicidal, hearing voices and had not slept for more than three days, was sent home with a bottle of sleeping tablets and told to consult a Napier psychiatrist later in the day.
"But he had no car and he wasn't going to walk all the way to Napier from Hastings.
"And he was hearing voices and threatening to blow up the Caltex garage," his mother told Hawke's Bay Today. "We told them he should have been in IPU (Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit) for the weekend.
"By the time he received the pills, he hadn't slept for three days or more and was overdue for his compulsory shot."
Less than 24 hours later, Pere robbed the Angus Inn bottle store of $385, sparking an armed offenders' squad call-out.
He pretended to have a gun, which was actually a loaf of bread hidden under his jacket.
Last month, Pere was sentenced to 20 months' jail when he pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and assaulting a police officer.
Symptoms of unstable bipolar disorder include sleeplessness, depression, suicidal thoughts and episodes of extreme elation known as mania, which result in erratic or bizarre behaviour.
Patients experiencing severe symptoms are usually stabilised in hospital.
"The case here is about accountability," Pere's mother, a mental health worker, said.
"He came to them when he needed help and they absolutely failed him."
At his sentencing, Pere's lawyer said his client was suffering from bipolar disorder, but was much better now he was on medication.
A charge of aggravated robbery, which could potentially have resulted in a 20-year jail sentence, was reduced to robbery, which carried a lesser penalty.
Time served on remand meant Pere could be out of jail in as little as nine months, but that was of little consolation to his mother.
"I don't blame the police and the judge acknowledged my son's condition, but he should not have been out (of hospital) at all.
"Heaps of people like him get misunderstood and you're just banging your head against a brick wall."
At one point, her son had told her that perhaps he would be better off in prison.
"When they told me he'd done an aggravated (robbery) - I was afraid he'd killed someone or it was him who died."
The woman said she had received a letter from the hospital saying an investigation was under way.
Angus Inn owner Graeme Jones said releasing Pere in his condition had been a dangerous step, and he was also concerned about the waste of police resources.
Mr Jones said he felt sorry for Pere and that the incident had negatively affected everyone involved.
"It certainly didn't do my staff member any good," he said.
Hawke's Bay District Health Board communications adviser Karalyn van Deursen said the DHB could not publicly comment on any individual's health care.
Hawke's Bay prison manager Peter Fraser said he could not comment.