Patients spend 98 days in seclusion
‘‘He's still living in the same room, and that has a traumatic effect.’’
About 12 of the country’s most complex mental health patients spent 98 days in seclusion last year in Porirua.
Patients in the forensic intellectual disability inpatient units, operated by Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB), were in seclusion 49 times, for a total of 2358 hours, according to DHB figures for the 2016 calendar year.
That’s just under 200 hours per patient.
The Haumietiketike and Hikitia Te Wairua units housed some of the most challenging clients in the country, CCDHB mental health, addictions and intellectual disability general manager Nigel Fairley said.
Questions were raised after figures in an official report, publicly released by the Ministry of Health this week, suggested CCDHB’s use of seclusion was four times higher than any other DHB.
However, the figures were inconsistent with other data in the report, particularly in relation to CCDHB. When queried, the ministry removed the figures from the online report and launched a data review, which is still under way.
Autistic man Ashley Peacock is not in either of the units in question, but Fairley confirmed he still occasionally spends time in seclusion, ‘‘like all clients’’.
Fairley stressed no client – including Peacock – lived in seclusion.
Earlier this year, Peacock’s parents, Dave and Marlena Peacock, won a bid to free their son from the facility in which he’s lived for 11 years.
Efforts are still under way to integrate him into the com- munity, and his parents are hopeful he will be out of Porirua’s Tawhirimatea unit by the end of the summer.
‘‘Even though he’s less likely to spend time in seclusion than before, he’s still living in the same room, and that has a traumatic effect,’’ Dave Peacock said.
Ashley Peacock, who will be 40 in March, will come home for a meal with his parents on Christmas Eve, accompanied by minders.
Fairley said it was not possible to put a timeframe on a release date for Peacock, whose care has been estimated to cost $2500 a day.
He has regular access to the wider hospital grounds and has regular community outings, Fairley said.
Although CCDHB provided its own figures on seclusion, at short notice it was able to provide only an estimate of the numbers in the forensic intellectual disability inpatient units who were placed into a locked room, due to the way records were kept.
‘‘We do not record the number of clients who are secluded in a way that is easy to collate,’’ Fairley said.
‘‘What we can say is that 24 clients used our forensic intellectual disability inpatient units during 2016.
‘‘Of those, around 50 per cent – or roughly 12 clients – would have been secluded at some point.’’
Seclusion was not taken lightly. ‘‘Seclusion is only ever used as a last resort when clients are behaving violently and pose a risk to themselves, other clients or staff.
‘‘We fully support the Ministry of Health direction to reduce the use of seclusion and have a dedicated group in our service focused on this.’’