GUEST BLOG: Mothers day anguish, “Failing mental health system killed my son”
Mother’s day has become a day of anguish for our family since our son Nicky Stevens died while in the legal care of the Waikato DHB. This last week has been particularly difficult as we have had to witness the death of another young person in similar circumstances to our son. Our Mental Health system is failing too many of our young people. I have become increasingly distressed at the comments by our Minister of Health that our mental health system provides high-quality services. Our son would still be alive today if he had received a high quality of care by Waikato DHB. Here is a brief visual diary of my son’s journey through our “high-quality” mental health system.
Jane Stevens, Nicky’s mum.
Very powerful visual record Jane.
Keep up the great fight, we need that independent inquiry to stop the epidemic of young people killing themselves.
We need the opportunity for young people to be heard without being silenced by the state.
Kia kaha!
Serioulsy, why hasn’t Andrew been banned? I totally relate to what Jane is saying and I know how hard they are fighting to get an inquest, I did too. My son would also be alive if there was ANY standard of mental health care, but there just isn’t. Our hospitals are staffed by amazingly incompetent people passing themselves off as professionals. Then, when their incompetence kills the children of other people, they are able to hire the best legal representation to absolve themselves of any responsibility. I fought for 4 years to get an inquest into the preventable death of my own son, it was presided over by a coroner who was determined to whitewash the crimes of some govt employees. I haven’t finished with them yet.