‘Red flags’ raised over Nicky Stevens’ death
There were ‘‘red flags’’ for Nicky Stevens’ death all along, an independent psychiatrist has said.
However, the psychiatrist treating him at the time said it was completely unexpected. Nicholas Taiaroa Macpherson Stevens, 21, was under compulsory mental health care after a suicide attempt in February 2015.
On March 9, he didn’t return after unsupervised leave from Hamilton’s Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre, and on March 12 his body was found in the Waikato River.
‘‘I’m sticking with my viewpoint that there were red flags all along,’’ consultant psychiatrist Dr Margaret Honeyman said in the High Court at Hamilton on Thursday.
Honeyman faced lengthy questioning on the second day of an inquest into Stevens’ death. Her views are disputed by the Waikato District Health Board psychiatrist overseeing Stevens at the time of his death – and another expert witness said many psychiatrists would have made the same calls.
‘‘The tragic outcome was completely unexpected,’’ said the DHB psychiatrist, whose identity is suppressed. ‘‘I had thought we were making good progress.’’
In a report for the police, Honeyman described Stevens’ death as avoidable, and yesterday she said it was ‘‘premature and unwise’’ to grant unescorted leave.
Red flags included Stevens’ beliefs he was possessed by aliens.
Stevens’ family had reported him talking about suicide methods some days before he went awol, Bain said, before asking how fast someone could improve to the point of being trusted on unsupervised leave.
‘‘I think the answer is: not that fast,’’ Honeyman replied.
Honeyman was challenged by the DHB psychiatrist’s lawyer Harry Waalkens on whether she could draw conclusions from clinical notes, but she said they should include any important information.
The DHB psychiatrist said Stevens’ risk factors were weighed up in the unescorted leave decision, and he may not have engaged if he thought clinicians were going to ‘‘be very rigid and never give him leave’’. However, the psychiatrist would have cancelled it if told of breaches shortly before his death.
The DHB psychiatrist offered condolences to Nicky Stevens’ family, and broke down when asked about the personal impact.
They took a period of stress leave, and had contemplated giving up their job. The psychiatrist’s first involvement with Stevens was on March 2, 2015 – about a week before his death.
The Stevens/Macpherson wha¯ nau was touched by the psychiatrist’s acknowledgment, their lawyer Richard Fowler said, and knew how hard the inquest process must be for the psychiatrist. A second expert witness, Dr Murray Patton, said hindsight made it easy to argue that the DHB psychiatrist’s leave decision wasn’t right.
‘‘With the evidence available at the time this considered decision is one that many experienced psychiatrists are also likely to have made.’’ The inquest is expected to finish on Friday.