$8m facility to help ‘those like Peacock’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a new facility for those with severe intellectual disabilities and mental illness will help a small group of people similar to autistic man Ashley Peacock.
Ardern made the announcement at the Ra¯tonga-Rua-O-Porirua Mental Health Campus in Porirua, saying $8.4 million in funding would provide a new six-unit secure facility to provide individualised care for the most highneeds patients.
The move follows publicity over the case of autistic man Ashley Peacock, who has been in a small room at the psychiatric facility at Porirua for almost eight years, and is about to be moved into the community after years of battling by his parents.
Ardern said a long-term solution had now been found for Peacock but the units would cater for those with similar complex needs.
“We have seen from cases in the past that we don’t have that kind of facility currently available in New Zealand. This is the first service of its kind and it is desperately needed,” Ardern said.
“It may be a small number of people who need this service, but at the moment we are not meeting that need,” she said.
“These people are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. They and the staff who care for them deserve fit-for-purpose facilities that meet existing needs and this investment ensures that.”
Peacock is due to be moved into the community soon, where he will live with specialist staff in a purpose-built home managed by provider Community Corrections.
He was moved to the Tawhirimatea unit at Porirua in 2007 and into the “de-escalation” wing in 2010 because of psychosis and violence issues.
The new units will be built at the Ra¯tonga-Rua-O-Porirua campus by the CCDHB and cater to those with intellectual disabilities or mental health diagnoses who are under the care of Mental Health Addiction and Intellectual Disability Services.
Health Minister David Clark said he expected the inquiry into mental health and addiction services to report back in October and that it would include “robust” recommendations for those with mental health issues.
Clark said the units would provide a greater quality of life for those who had previously been in in-patient services for lengthy periods of time.
Clark said there was room to expand it by four more units if those numbers grew.
The ongoing costs were $4.8m a year, to come out of the existing funding arrangement with the DHB. Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson welcomed the news, saying he was pleased the government had recognised there was a need for the small group affected. However, he said it would not make a material difference to the mental health needs of most, and he was more encouraged by signs from Clark that more measures would follow the mental health inquiry.
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