Patients lived in fear of 'The Treatment'

By PHIL TAYLOR

Brutal treatment of patients was the culture of the Porirua Mental Hospital in the 1960s, four former workers have said.

The four women told the Weekend Herald that electric shock treatment was routinely used as punishment and patients were drugged into zombie-like states to make them more manageable.

The women - students at the time - said part of their duties was to hold patients down while shock treatment was applied.

Now, Vicki Carnell, Helen Talbot, Elisabeth Gamlen and Gini Bevan, all aged in their 50s, are writing to Attorney-General Margaret Wilson, the Crown Law Office and lawyer Sonja Cooper, who represents more than half of 200 former psychiatric patients who are suing the Government for compensation for mistreatment. Most of the complaints involve Porirua.

Crown Law is investigating the complaints to ascertain credibility and how best to deal with them. Options include a representative court case or a Government-sanctioned inquiry.

While university students, the four women worked during the summer holidays at Porirua as aides to the nursing staff. They described the experience as devastating and say it stayed with them over the years.

They decided to speak out after learning that complainants' credibility might be questioned.

They tell of an environment in which patients were often "treated as animals", humiliated and threatened with ECT if they did not do as they were told.

Elisabeth Gamlen said: "I saw people stripped of all dignity, subjected to callous and painful procedures such as electro-convulsive therapy [shock treatment] administered without muscle relaxants, as punishment. 'If you don't behave it will be shock treatment for you tomorrow'.

"And it would be. Patients were terrified.

"People were herded naked, like animals, down corridors into huge bathrooms and roughly sluiced down."

Vicki Carnell recalls a distressed elderly woman being pulled by the hair to the bathroom after telling staff she didn't want a bath.

"It was heartbreaking. I tried to intervene and was punched in the face by a staff member."

There was no point complaining because such treatment was regarded by most staff as normal. With some exceptions, staff had no respect for people's rights.

"Every day there were threats, 'Do this or you will get 'The Treatment'. That's what they called it, 'The Treatment'," Vicki Carnell said.

"It didn't take much to get it. A mild misdemeanour could lead to an episode of ECT.

"I'm amazed anyone could have come out of there and live a normal life. It's a credit to those who did."

The women believe some patients, who seemed to be suffering no more than depression brought on by bereavement or post-natal depression, were damaged by their treatment.

Helen Talbot said: "It was dehumanising. To continue working there you would have to anaesthetise yourself against what was happening. There was no emphasis on anything remedial or any spark of hope introduced into the patients' lives."

The Government will decide whether to call an inquiry after Crown Law completes its investigation.

Crown Law spokeswoman Jan Fulstow said 19 claims involving 65 plantiffs had been filed in court and more were expected. She was unable to estimate when Crown Law might finish its investigation.

Ms Wilson said she had instructed Crown Law to hire extra staff.

"I am keen that this matter is not unduly delayed but, that at the same time, due process is followed in what is an enormously complicated case,"she said.

"A lot of work has to be done tracing and checking files and facts several decades old. However, the Crown will only make payments when legal liability can be established."

The claims:

* About 200 former patients claim they were mistreated at psychiatric hospitals in the 1960s and 1970s.

* Most of the allegations focus on Porirua Hospital but others have been made about Oakley, Kingseat and Tokanui psychiatric hospitals.

* The most serious allegations are of sexual assault and beatings by staff and patients.