A retired surgeon was involuntarily admitted to a mental health ward after concerns about his behaviour. Photo / 123rf
A retired surgeon who began exhibiting increasingly erratic behaviour, including spending $40,000 travelling Europe to promote a plan to fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin, was admitted against his will to a mental health treatment unit.
The man’s doctor referred him for a mental health assessment earlier this year after several complaints about his behaviour.
Over the past year, the man butted heads with his lawyer, accountant, bank and family members, as he believed they were trying to take his money and had forged his signature to do so.
In an email to a piano tuner, he called the man a “filthy sinning coward” and copied in a range of other organisations, including the police, Kiwibank, Spark and various politicians.
He was removed from a speaking event at his former school, as well as a church service, after becoming aggressive.
In March, he travelled around Europe to promote a plan he had to fight against Putin and to end the war in Ukraine, spending $40,000 of his own money to do so.
He also sought an audience with multiple secret service agencies to suggest a plan for peace in Ukraine.
His behaviour was at odds with the highly intelligent and eccentric person his family knew, and in July this year, he was involuntarily taken into a mental health treatment unit.
A doctor at the unit then applied for a compulsory treatment order, which, if imposed, could see the man receive treatment for up to six months.
However, in the Family Court, the man opposed the order being made, arguing he did not have a mental disorder.
To qualify as having a mental disorder requiring compulsory treatment, a person must be proven to be a danger to themselves or others and be unable to take care of themselves.
The man had been an inpatient for two months by the time a hearing was held last month and had been accepting treatment because he was required to, not because he’d agreed. He spent days at his home but returned to the unit at night.
According to the Family Court’s recent decision, a charge nurse at the unit said that since being given medication, there had been a reduction in the man’s “delusional” thoughts and behaviours, such as believing a screw in his car tyre had been intentionally put there by his stepmother.
A doctor, whose opinion was sought by the court about whether a compulsory treatment order should be put in place, said the man did not make obviously grandiose, clearly delusional and bizarre claims about himself.
While the doctor described the man as “intense”, he’d been able to pare back the way he communicated and identify why people had found it offensive.
Overall, the doctor said he didn’t think the man met the threshold for a compulsory treatment order.
Another doctor who assessed the man identified multiple risks, including alienating his support, being unable to interact reasonably with banks, lawyers, accountants and the potential for further legal repercussions because of that, and said they pointed to an underlying cognitive condition.
The man, a retired medical professional, told the court he had no physical or psychiatric conditions that required treatment and stated, “I’m a doctor and I know”.
He maintained he did not need to take antipsychotic medication, despite doctors at the mental health unit claiming they had seen a marked improvement and he’d become “less intense”.
Family Court Judge Annette Gray found the man was suffering from an abnormal state of mind characterised by delusions, both persecutory and grandiose.
Judge Gray said while his behaviour was increasingly abnormal, there was no evidence of him previously needing to be removed from public spaces or sending inappropriate emails.
“[The man] has been described as eccentric but the behaviours over the course of this year, in my view, go beyond what could reasonably be seen as eccentric to behaviours that on the balance of probabilities support the description of an abnormal state of mind characterised by delusions.”
However, she was not satisfied he posed any danger to himself or to others, or that he had lost the ability to care for himself.
Judge Gray said if his behaviour continued and escalated, then a compulsory order could be made in the future.
“However, imposing compulsory inpatient treatment and medication against someone’s agreement has to be carefully weighed up and the extent of the risk balanced against the patient’s usual right to determine their own medical treatment.
“I do not consider [the man] is mentally disordered as the second limb of the test for mental disorder is not made out, he shall therefore be released from compulsory status forthwith.”
The man was approached for comment through his lawyer.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.