Scientologists make report

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 17

Scientologists make report

Electric-shock treatment has been used as punishment in New Zealand psychiatric hospitals — according to the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights. This and other charges are contained in an interim report on the commission’s findings after touring Kingseat, .-Tokanui, and Lake Alice .mental institutions.

. The commission, sponsored by the Church of Scientology, visited several psychiatric hospitals, but was refused permission to tour four hospitals, including Sunnyside. The report includes a sworn affidavit from a psychiatric nurse who is said to have worked at Tokanui. This alleges that patients who were “troublesome” were given electro-convulsive therapy as a punishment, and that threats of shocktreatment were held over patients who would not “toe tie line.”

A former male nurse is quoted as having said that the practice was used at two other mental hospitals.

The commission condemns the use of electro-convulsive therapy generally, because of

its “experimental” nature. After 30 years of use, there is still no satisfactory explanation of how the treatment works, it savs in the report.

The medical superintendent of Lake Alice Hospital (Dr S. L. Pugmire) is said to have told the commission that long-term use of the treatment caused brain damage and loss of memory. Inmates of Kingseat are reported to have complained of acute disorientation, nausea, loss of memory and severe headaches for several days after shock treatment.

The commission alleges that it has been denied access to the four other psychiatric hospitals as a direct result of its reporting on conditions in the hospitals it visited.

Other charges contained in the report assert that a serious uncontrolled outbreak of dysentry has existed for two years at Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital, and that inmates of Lake Alice Hospital are being exploited for “slave labour.” It says that the female geriatric ward at Tokanui is overcrowded and degrading.