Social services criticised

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 11

Social services criticised

Mental health services in New Zealand should be completely overhauled to give better protection of basic human rights, according to the’ Canterbury branch of the .• Association of Social Workers. The association says it is concerned that sufferers of mental illness are often subject to abuses of their civil liberties and of their rightful access to the complete range of specialised services. The co-presidents of the association (Mrs Jan Smith and Mr Murray Cree) said there was mounting evidence that mental health sufferers were labelled and treated more like criminals than people with a sickness. Under the Mental Health Act, 1969. treatment such as electric shock, therapy could be authorised on the basis of flimsy or unverified evidence.

Additional safeguards should be introduced to help protect the individual. The association felt that human rights might be better observed if an . independent official (apart from the judicial system) took over the examining role of a magistrate, and a panel system for reviewing individual cases was instituted. It was desirable that social workers be given higher official status; local workers had been hampered by the lack of official recog-nition-of their role as : advocates of patients’ social interests'. There seemed to be. no-one : in a position to supervise the social and civil rights of such people.

I Concern was also Expressed that doctors were the main gatekeepers to the range of specialised mental services. The role should be shared more, especially as these services increased in complexity. , ‘ Administrative procedures should also be looked at closely. The present system, though originally intended to provide a thorough study of a range of opinions, was becoming a rubber-stamping exercise . notable .. for.,. ,its administrative'ease. ■ . ■ ;•; . On ; community Smith' arid Mr ■ Cree ; were critical of the heavy* dependence on institutions? "Socialwork .skills jin tornihuhity, health • cabriot be fully’jused until there-.is a' fundbmeritali shift away from the existing institutional focus,” they said. Within the' institutions, it was important that outpatient facilities be modernised and that adequate staff numbers be maintained for efficiency. However, resources would be more sensibly concentrated on,, the individual rather than ..on institutional services. . .. , Mrs - Smith and Mr Cree said that the most, vulnerable members of the community, those - with ■ mental illness, were being deprived of their rights. In the past problems were caused by the inadequacies of the. Mental Health 'Act, and also by a lack of financial provision from the Government; “For the majority of the mentally ill, the community care concept just does not exist,” they said.