Forum offer is 'a sick joke'

[Guest guest]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3122796a6502,00.html

Forum offer is 'a sick joke'

09 December 2004

By LEE MATTHEWS

The Government is cynically banking on former pyschiatric patients giving up

and going away by making justice too difficult to attain, say former Lake

Alice Hospital residents in Palmerston North.

Sharyn Collis and Banks were 1970s Lake Alice patients tortured with

electroconvulsive treatment without anaesthetic. They were disgusted

yesterday to hear that Attorney-General Margaret has refused to hold

a public inquiry into hospital abuse before 1992. Instead, she has offered

to set up a non-public forum to allow former patients, their families and

hospital staff a chance to air their complaints and stories.

Any compensation for abuse would have to be sought by suing the Government

through the courts, Ms said.

" The Government knows that we can't afford to go through the courts. Who

could afford the legal fees? " Mr Banks said.

" And some group encounter session to talk about it? She (Ms ) knows

bloody well nobody will turn up for that . . .who would bother? It's not

going to help to sit and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis agreed. She has spent her life since Lake Alice trying to move on

from being raped and given painful paraldehyde injections and

unanaesthetised ECT as punishments, and said group discussions of old hurts

would not help her.

" It's a joke, surely, " she said. " A sick joke. When are we going to get

justice? This just smells like the whole thing is too hard for the

Government, so they're walking away from what happened. "

Mr Banks said what had happened to him at Lake Alice had wrecked his ability

to function as a wage-earning adult in society. He could not work, dealing

as he did with a medically prescribed morphine addiction that had come as a

result of the medication needed to combat headaches arising from ECT without

anaesthetics.

Money as compensation was only part of the solution. Mr Banks said his compe

nsation, part of the first $6.5 million class-action suit against Lake

Alice, didn't repair his life.

" I'm tired of being labelled a compensation-seeking bludger, " he said. " It's

not fair to apologise to and compensate some of the Lake Alice victims, yet

tell people who were at Porirua and other places in the South Island that

they should go to group therapy and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis said her experiences at Lake Alice had left her isolated and

profoundly distrustful of other people.

[Guest guest]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3122796a6502,00.html

Forum offer is 'a sick joke'

09 December 2004

By LEE MATTHEWS

The Government is cynically banking on former pyschiatric patients giving up

and going away by making justice too difficult to attain, say former Lake

Alice Hospital residents in Palmerston North.

Sharyn Collis and Banks were 1970s Lake Alice patients tortured with

electroconvulsive treatment without anaesthetic. They were disgusted

yesterday to hear that Attorney-General Margaret has refused to hold

a public inquiry into hospital abuse before 1992. Instead, she has offered

to set up a non-public forum to allow former patients, their families and

hospital staff a chance to air their complaints and stories.

Any compensation for abuse would have to be sought by suing the Government

through the courts, Ms said.

" The Government knows that we can't afford to go through the courts. Who

could afford the legal fees? " Mr Banks said.

" And some group encounter session to talk about it? She (Ms ) knows

bloody well nobody will turn up for that . . .who would bother? It's not

going to help to sit and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis agreed. She has spent her life since Lake Alice trying to move on

from being raped and given painful paraldehyde injections and

unanaesthetised ECT as punishments, and said group discussions of old hurts

would not help her.

" It's a joke, surely, " she said. " A sick joke. When are we going to get

justice? This just smells like the whole thing is too hard for the

Government, so they're walking away from what happened. "

Mr Banks said what had happened to him at Lake Alice had wrecked his ability

to function as a wage-earning adult in society. He could not work, dealing

as he did with a medically prescribed morphine addiction that had come as a

result of the medication needed to combat headaches arising from ECT without

anaesthetics.

Money as compensation was only part of the solution. Mr Banks said his compe

nsation, part of the first $6.5 million class-action suit against Lake

Alice, didn't repair his life.

" I'm tired of being labelled a compensation-seeking bludger, " he said. " It's

not fair to apologise to and compensate some of the Lake Alice victims, yet

tell people who were at Porirua and other places in the South Island that

they should go to group therapy and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis said her experiences at Lake Alice had left her isolated and

profoundly distrustful of other people.

[Guest guest]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3122796a6502,00.html

Forum offer is 'a sick joke'

09 December 2004

By LEE MATTHEWS

The Government is cynically banking on former pyschiatric patients giving up

and going away by making justice too difficult to attain, say former Lake

Alice Hospital residents in Palmerston North.

Sharyn Collis and Banks were 1970s Lake Alice patients tortured with

electroconvulsive treatment without anaesthetic. They were disgusted

yesterday to hear that Attorney-General Margaret has refused to hold

a public inquiry into hospital abuse before 1992. Instead, she has offered

to set up a non-public forum to allow former patients, their families and

hospital staff a chance to air their complaints and stories.

Any compensation for abuse would have to be sought by suing the Government

through the courts, Ms said.

" The Government knows that we can't afford to go through the courts. Who

could afford the legal fees? " Mr Banks said.

" And some group encounter session to talk about it? She (Ms ) knows

bloody well nobody will turn up for that . . .who would bother? It's not

going to help to sit and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis agreed. She has spent her life since Lake Alice trying to move on

from being raped and given painful paraldehyde injections and

unanaesthetised ECT as punishments, and said group discussions of old hurts

would not help her.

" It's a joke, surely, " she said. " A sick joke. When are we going to get

justice? This just smells like the whole thing is too hard for the

Government, so they're walking away from what happened. "

Mr Banks said what had happened to him at Lake Alice had wrecked his ability

to function as a wage-earning adult in society. He could not work, dealing

as he did with a medically prescribed morphine addiction that had come as a

result of the medication needed to combat headaches arising from ECT without

anaesthetics.

Money as compensation was only part of the solution. Mr Banks said his compe

nsation, part of the first $6.5 million class-action suit against Lake

Alice, didn't repair his life.

" I'm tired of being labelled a compensation-seeking bludger, " he said. " It's

not fair to apologise to and compensate some of the Lake Alice victims, yet

tell people who were at Porirua and other places in the South Island that

they should go to group therapy and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis said her experiences at Lake Alice had left her isolated and

profoundly distrustful of other people.

[Guest guest]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3122796a6502,00.html

Forum offer is 'a sick joke'

09 December 2004

By LEE MATTHEWS

The Government is cynically banking on former pyschiatric patients giving up

and going away by making justice too difficult to attain, say former Lake

Alice Hospital residents in Palmerston North.

Sharyn Collis and Banks were 1970s Lake Alice patients tortured with

electroconvulsive treatment without anaesthetic. They were disgusted

yesterday to hear that Attorney-General Margaret has refused to hold

a public inquiry into hospital abuse before 1992. Instead, she has offered

to set up a non-public forum to allow former patients, their families and

hospital staff a chance to air their complaints and stories.

Any compensation for abuse would have to be sought by suing the Government

through the courts, Ms said.

" The Government knows that we can't afford to go through the courts. Who

could afford the legal fees? " Mr Banks said.

" And some group encounter session to talk about it? She (Ms ) knows

bloody well nobody will turn up for that . . .who would bother? It's not

going to help to sit and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis agreed. She has spent her life since Lake Alice trying to move on

from being raped and given painful paraldehyde injections and

unanaesthetised ECT as punishments, and said group discussions of old hurts

would not help her.

" It's a joke, surely, " she said. " A sick joke. When are we going to get

justice? This just smells like the whole thing is too hard for the

Government, so they're walking away from what happened. "

Mr Banks said what had happened to him at Lake Alice had wrecked his ability

to function as a wage-earning adult in society. He could not work, dealing

as he did with a medically prescribed morphine addiction that had come as a

result of the medication needed to combat headaches arising from ECT without

anaesthetics.

Money as compensation was only part of the solution. Mr Banks said his compe

nsation, part of the first $6.5 million class-action suit against Lake

Alice, didn't repair his life.

" I'm tired of being labelled a compensation-seeking bludger, " he said. " It's

not fair to apologise to and compensate some of the Lake Alice victims, yet

tell people who were at Porirua and other places in the South Island that

they should go to group therapy and talk about it. "

Mrs Collis said her experiences at Lake Alice had left her isolated and

profoundly distrustful of other people.