After refusing to hold further discussions with Nicky Stevens’ whanau six months ago, the Waikato DHB – under the new leadership of Commissioner Karen Poutasi – has changed tack and agreed to participate in mediation talks with his family.
The parents of Nicky Stevens, who died in 2015 while in the ‘care’ of Waikato DHB’s acute mental health facility, have welcomed the focus of the 2019 Budget on Mental Health.
Coroner Wallace Bain has formally found that our son and brother Nicky Stevens’ death was as a result of suicide.
I believe it’s highly unethical for an individual’s future prospects and education level to be dictated by the amount of money their parents earn, or the level of emotional and holistic support a child receives from their parents.
GOVT APPOINTS DHB & MoH GROUP TO ADVISE WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE MENTAL HEALTH INQUIRY RECOMMENDATIONS….
With the Government’s delayed Mental Health Inquiry due to report back in the next few days, it’s worth reminding ourselves about the background and issues that forced this move onto the political agenda.
Most individuals who have a mental illness have experienced trauma throughout childhood or adolescence leaving the individual hypervigilant.
Health professionals have a high level power over vulnerable people and therefore they are deemed responsible for equity in health outcomes, for those that are marginalised in today’s westernised society. People that are marginalised often face unfair cultural stigmatisation and racism. It is crucial that we treat Māori people with kindness, empathy and respect.
Missing persons cases cause flurries of action and public conjecture from time to time; searches quite rightly swing into action the moment police and neighbours hear of missing children, or a senior that has disappeared from the local old folks home. But when the missing person is known to be mentally unwell, the concern is muted, and often the action is delayed and ineffective.
The official response to this foreseeable crisis has been pathetic – a combination of denial and claims that the problems were under control. While former Minister Jonathan ‘Dr Death’ Coleman has now scarpered from Parliament (good riddance), the new Labour Minister of Health David Clark clearly has a hell of a lot of work yet to do to convince us that the mental health crisis is being properly dealt with.
