Abuse in care: Disabled survivors put into care as 'containment from society', inquiry finds

Wednesday, 15 December 2021

Details of the torturous electric shock therapy inflicted on children have been laid out in grim detail at the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. (Video first published in June 2021)

Throughout most of the 20th century, disabled people were routinely removed from society to be placed in large state-run institutions where they were physically and sexually abused, subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), put in solitary confinement, and sometimes even sterilised against their will.

These were some of the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care about the horrific abuse Deaf and disabled people endured for decades.

The commission’s interim report was made public on Wednesday and contains detailed information about the abuse that occurred in state care and faith-based institutions from 1950 to 2019.

According to the report, during most of the 20th century parents of disabled children often faced considerable pressure from the government to place their children in these institutions around the age of 5, on the grounds it was “better for them and their family”.

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The old Sunnyside Hospital building in Christchurch. (File photo)

In some cases, infants went into care for decades. Some disabled people never left care once they entered it, remaining in an institution for the rest of their lives.

Some who died in care were buried in unmarked graves, prompting some in the community to describe disability care as “from cradle to unmarked grave”.

Disabled people were put into institutions not only with the goal of treatment or rehabilitation, but also as punishment and “containment from society”.

The report notes that advocates of eugenics – a pseudoscience aimed at “improving the race” through selective breeding – believed that disabled people should be separated from society to prevent the breeding of a “subnormal” race.

In the 1950s and 1960s, New Zealand had a number of public psychiatric and “psychopaedic” hospitals – institutions primarily for people with learning disability.

Former patients at Sunnyside mental health hospital in Christchurch are believed to have been buried in various unmarked graves around Sydenham cemetery. Graves like these prompted some to describe disability care as “from cradle to unmarked grave”.

Large residential facilities included facilities in Avondale (known as Auckland, and later Oakley and Carrington); Papakura (Kingseat and later also Ravensthorpe); Māngere; Waikato (Tokanui); Marton (Lake Alice); Levin (later Kimberley); Porirua; Nelson (Ngāwhatu and Braemar); Hokitika (Seaview); Christchurch (Sunnyside and Templeton); and Otago (Seacliff, Cherry Farm).

Together, these facilities housed more than 10,000 people. Children and adults with physical impairments were also sometimes taken away from their families, including, for example, to rehabilitation facilities for children with polio.

Abuse, ECT and isolation

Survivors who were in psychiatric and “psychopaedic” institutions reported routine physical violence and sexual abuse at the hands of staff and other residents.

In this episode of The Detail podcast, RNZ talks to Aaron Smale, who has spent five years tracking down and reporting stories of state care abuse. (First published October 2020)

Some were subjected to invasive treatments such as ECT and deep sleep therapy without consent or as punishment. Others were force-fed medication and then abused while unconscious, subjected to inappropriate procedures including vaginal examinations, threatened with a lobotomy, or subjected to solitary confinement and isolation.

The commission was also made aware of reports of disabled women and girls being sterilised without consent, and being injected with a contraceptive.

Research conducted after the closure of one psychopaedic institution found that there had been little development of life skills for the children in care, and that some disabled people entered the institution able to speak but were unable to by the time they left.

While these institutions were later closed, it did not mean the end of abuse of disabled people, the inquiry found.

“We have heard that disabled people have suffered abuse in community-based facilities including kaupapa Māori facilities, and other settings such as police custody, and transition between settings.”

The commission said independent reviews of health and disability facilities in 2017 and 2020 found that seclusion was used “too often, for too long, and not always with clear justification”.

A 2018 government inquiry into mental health noted that seclusion, restraint and compulsory treatment were overused within the mental health system, especially for Māori and Pasifika peoples, and that the use of compulsory orders sometimes resulted in trauma and harm.

Deaf survivors told the commission of educational, cultural and linguistic neglect, including accounts of hearing teachers in Deaf schools who would punish students for using sign language, and force Deaf students to lip-read and communicate orally.

Disabled people also faced additional barriers to disclosing abuse, including communication barriers, a lack of education about sexuality, consent, or what constitutes abuse, and fear of punishment or retribution.

Survivors with learning disabilities struggle to navigate any of the current avenues of redress, and many disabled survivors simply do not understand what redress is, the inquiry found.

Tailored redress needed for disabled people

The commission said a redress process tailored to disabled people’s diverse impairments, experiences, identities and cultures needed to be established.

“Deaf and disabled survivors must be in control of key decisions and some might need a supported decision-making framework to enable this.”

The commission said any redress scheme should be accessible to disabled people in terms of physical spaces and the way information and support were provided.

“Any scheme should also respond to service gaps, such as shortages of New Zealand Sign Language interpreters, mental health professionals for disabled people (particularly people with learning disability), specialised disability legal services and specialist pathways for people with complex needs.”

The commission said Māori survivors who are Deaf and disabled – and thus suffered both racism and ableism – spoke of the importance of connection or reconnection with their whānau and te ao Māori as part of any redress scheme, and of restoration of mana and rangatiratanga consistent with te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Unlike many other groups of survivors of abuse in care, many disabled people continue to be in long-term care arrangements, and therefore disabled survivors said that redress should be available for current and future experiences of abuse, not just historic claims.

Redress should include financial support to meet the additional costs of living and support that disabled survivors face, the report said. Protection of people from current and future abuse should be a priority.