Big smiles as Ashley gets new home
Aheartwarming picture has been released showing Ashley Peacock happy and inside his new home. It’s the first time Peacock, 40, has been pictured at his purpose-built rural house in the lower North Island.
Community Connections posted the picture of its chief executive, John Taylor, embracing Peacock during a visit to the house.
Peacock spent almost eight years locked in an isolated mental health unit where he was allowed out for only 90 minutes a day.
His living situation was so poor the Ombudsman labelled it “cruel and inhuman”. He was approved to leave his mental health unit in late August.
Peacock lives with three specialist staff, has his own room and access to a kitchen, so he can, at last, undertake one of his favourite activities — making guests a cup of tea. He was flooded with messages of support after his move.
“This is the best news of 2018,” one supporter said. “Ashley’s smile could not be any bigger — who said he would not reintegrate outside of a medieval mental hospital system . . .
“Congrats to Ashley’s parents and supporters for not giving up. This picture speaks a thousand words!”
The long-awaited move follows a bitter battle by Peacock’s parents and supporters for his freedom, including a 2016 Herald investigation which captured national attention.
Peacock, who is autistic, intellectually disabled and experiences psychotic episodes, has lived in institutions on and off for 20 years as a compulsory patient under the Mental Health Act.
He was shifted to the Tawhirimatea unit in the grounds of the former Porirua Lunatic Asylum in 2007, and to its tiny “de-escalation” wing in 2010, due to increasingly violent episodes against staff.
It was meant to be a short-term solution. But despite repeated complaints from experts, watchdogs and his family, Peacock stayed, allowed out just 90 minutes a day.
During that time, his condition deteriorated so much his parents now wonder if he will ever readjust.
“He has been institutionalised and traumatised. He’s damaged,” said dad Dave Peacock. “He’s going to have to learn to be a member of the community again. Human beings are social animals and he’s been cut off.”