In March, Minister Erica Stanford announced the country’s abuse in care redress system would be expanded to include people who were abused in mental health settings after 1993. Up until now, the system had cut off at June 30, 1993, because of ‘a weird anomaly’ after major reforms. The recent
‘Heartbreaking and unjust’: How a woman abused by a nurse as a teenager changed the law
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“It got to the point where I thought this is never going to get through, so I printed off my email and personally handed it to her.”
That email explained how the country’s core and formal redress scheme did not cover abuse in state-run mental health facilities after July 1993 and “excludes an entire generation of survivors like me”.
The “sadness and pain” of people being excluded from the “recognition and support survivors so desperately need” could not be overstated, she said in her email.
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“It was heartbreaking and unjust that our suffering continues to go unrecognised simply because of an arbitrary date.”
This gap in the system is because of major health reforms in the 1990s. Liability for abuse that happened in health settings was the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, which had a formal redress system, until 1993 when major reforms dispersed liabilities across a number of organisations, such as the Crown Health Enterprises, which did not have formal redress schemes.
In 2001, liabilities were again dispersed with the establishment of District Health Boards and further reforms in 2022 led to DHBs being absorbed into the entity known today as Health NZ.
None of the organisations formed after 1993 had formal redress schemes to respond to claims of abuse in care and survivors’ only options were to pursue an ad hoc complaint or litigation. Health NZ is liable for claims after 2022. It says there have been 11 claims of alleged abuse in mental health settings since that time.
In 2007, when Charlotte was 16 years old, she was admitted to a mental health unit run by Hutt Valley DHB that specialised in treating eating disorders. She told the Herald she was groomed and abused by a nurse as she sought help for anorexia.
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“From the beginning, the very beginning, there was one nurse who took a special interest. And when you are in that physically vulnerable [space], away from home, that feels, I don’t know, good?
“It feels warm. That slowly but surely escalated ... I would leave [the residence] and stay over at her house, and it slowly, almost without me noticing, it turned sexual.”
She said she was told by the nurse that visits to the nurse’s house were to be kept secret.
Charlotte said she was aware of other teenage girls from the same unit who had similar experiences with the same nurse. She said her parents had complained about the nurse’s behaviour to a psychiatrist and the charge nurse.
“It was a systemic issue that was buried by the staff. If they had done anything, maybe it would not have happened to the next girl.”
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Charlotte said abuse and manipulation by the nurse continued after she was discharged from the unit and went on until the nurse died suddenly some years later.
“I remember her saying, ‘we have such a special bond’. She slowly isolated my supporters. [She played] this supportive role but also slightly maternal at the beginning, which added to the mindf*** of when it turned sexual because it was just a weird dynamic.
“At the time, I felt confused but also supported, which kept me going back.”
In the years after the nurse died, Charlotte began to comprehend the inappropriateness of what had happened. She lodged a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) in 2019, but, according to documents seen by the Herald, investigations were halted because there was no mention of the abuse in her clinical records. The time lapsed meant most senior staffers present during Charlotte’s admission were no longer employed and other records that could have been helpful were no longer available.
“The trauma of that experience builds up over time as you realise how f***ed up it was. You get this [feeling] ‘it was my fault, it was normal, I agreed to it’ etc. But then hang on a second ... my parents complained at the time.
“I think it turned from confusion and self-blame, and it slowly turned into anger for a number of reasons. If that had been dealt with when I was 17, maybe I would have recovered from anorexia. I only recovered from anorexia in 2023.”
Correspondence from Hutt Valley DHB to the HDC in 2019, and later obtained by Charlotte, said although there were no records of formal complaints about the nurse from patients, other DHB staff members had raised concerns about the nurse’s “maintenance of professional boundaries” with respect to patients.
In the letter, the DHB says it acted on these concerns from staff and information from another patient’s father contributed to a disciplinary process the DHB undertook in the late 2000s. The letter is heavily redacted but notes the nurse was ultimately dismissed that same year.
“Mental health care could happen to anybody,” Charlotte said.
“It could be anybody’s child that has to go into residential eating disorder treatment, it could be anyone who has a psychotic episode or has a chemical imbalance that they become unwell and need to go into in patient care.”
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In 2024, the results of the landmark Royal Commission of Inquiry’s investigation into abuse in state and faith-based institutions between 1950 and 2019 were released. It concluded abuse in these facilities, which included care homes for youth and psychiatric hospitals such as Lake Alice in the Manawatū, was widespread and a “national disgrace”.
For this, the Government formally apologised and a redress system for survivors of torture at Lake Alice was set up. This included either a swift payment of $150,000 or a longer, more thorough review by an independent arbiter. Redress from the arbiter reviews ranged from $160,000 to $600,000.
“I think there was an attitude towards the abuse and care [inquiry] that it is ‘them’,” Charlotte said.
“That it is not us, it’s them – but in reality, it is anybody.”
Charlotte had to complain via the HDC, an independent but broad watchdog for the health and disability system, because the Ministry of Health’s formal redress system only applied to cases up to June 30, 1993.
At a dead end, Charlotte started emailing ministers and MPs. Some replied, some didn’t. But behind the scenes, the Government was well aware of the “anomaly” in its legislation. In September 2025, a letter obtained by the Herald shows Stanford raised the issue in an email to Health Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey.
“It does not serve survivors of abuse in care well if patients who experienced abuse in psychiatric care prior to 1993 are able to access a historic claims process through the Ministry of Health, but if they were abused post 1993, Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand does not have appropriate policies and procedures in place,” Stanford said in her letter.
About a month after Stanford sent that letter to Doocey and Brown, Charlotte approached her out of the blue at an event.
“We had known there was an anomaly in the system,” Stanford told the Herald.
“We were concerned about it ... but when we met Charlotte, when you have a human face of the person in front of you, hearing the details of what had happened to them, it really accelerated the work programme pretty quickly.”
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Stanford said when Charlotte walked up to her at the event, she was “visibly shaking and trying to hold it together”. The pair talked and organised a further meeting at Stanford’s office.
“It took an enormous amount of courage for her to come and talk to me about her case. She told me what had happened to her and what she had tried to do to get redress, and the terrible time that she had had and the brick walls that she just kept hitting at every turn to try and get some help and get some redress,” Stanford said.
A few months later, Stanford announced the state redress scheme for abuse in mental health inpatient settings would be expanded to include claims from July 1, 1993, to June 30, 2022, when Health NZ was established. Claims after 2022 would be the responsibility of Health NZ.
This amendment would be called “Charlotte’s Change”.
Phil Grady, Health NZ’s national director, mental health and addictions, said claims of abuse in Health NZ’s care, including care provided by its predecessor organisations, were taken extremely seriously.
“Health New Zealand recognises the distress and impact abuse has on survivors and acknowledges Charlotte’s advocacy for the extension of the state redress system.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on individual cases.”
Grady said “Charlotte’s Change” marks a meaningful step forward for people who had spent years seeking recognition.
“For people who were harmed in mental health facilities after 1993 it will provide an accessible pathway to seek acknowledgment or redress. Extending the system is an important move toward fairness and healing.”
Survivors like Charlotte had shown “extraordinary resilience” in sharing their experiences and this extension of the redress system was one way the health sector and Government could honour that courage and begin to address historical inequities, Grady said.
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Work is underway to incorporate “Charlotte’s Change” into law. It has not yet been implemented. For now, survivors with claims of abuse in mental health contexts from July 1, 1993, can register their interest with the Ministry of Health. The Government will announce when this scheme is open for claims.
“Before I’m a politician, I’m a mum. That is across all my portfolios. Here it is about making sure survivors can access their redress. It is hard not to feel it personally, it is hard not to put your own child in these situations,” Stanford said.
“It is hard not to get a bit down on humanity, but then you meet survivors like Charlotte who are the most incredible people, and it sort of refills your cup again.”
Further information for survivors of abuse in care
Survivors with questions or potential claims can contact:
- Email: historicabuse@health.govt.nz
- Freephone: 0800 400 569
- Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm
Survivors can also contact the Survivor Experiences Service, where they can share their experiences or get help accessing their records.
- Call 0800 456 090
- Text 8328.
- Email contact@survivorexperiences.govt.nz
- Hours: Monday to Friday, 8.30am-4.30pm
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.