House of horrors

A WOMAN institutionalised for a decade has told of “monsters” who preyed on people with mental illness, and that victims’ cries for help were ignored.

Mental health advocate Janet Meagher was “a guest of Her Majesty” at a Sydney institution from 1969 to 1979 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In powerful testimony on the second day of the mental health royal commission’s public hearings, Ms Meagher said sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of staff was commonplace.

“There were wonderful, committed and marvellous, humane staff there,” she said.

“There were, parallel to that, monsters who were in the guise of nursing professionals.

“After I left I did a quick survey of people I knew who had been through, and I only ever met one who said they hadn’t been sexually abused.”

Ms Meagher said the abuse in turn made her more violent, a response to the “brazenness of people who claim they are health professionals”.

“Because we were not competent before the law, no one would listen to what was happening,” she said.

Now one of Australia’s most prominent mental health advocates, Ms Meagher began her fight for fairer treatment by arming herself with “weaponry” — the Mental Health Act and other codes of practice.

Initially dismissed by some as “a mad person”, she said some improvements had been made to the system.

But she said people with mental illness were simply surviving, not thriving.

Ms Meagher told the commission that people with mental illness, and their loved ones, needed more control over their own care, and services that extended beyond offering medication.

Yesterday’s hearings were at Melbourne Town Hall.