Pilot psychiatric transfer in Canty

Press, 14 October 1989, Page 17

Pilot psychiatric transfer in Canty

BY

DEBORAH McPHERSON

Canterbury has been chosen to pilot a sudsidy scheme that will enable psychiatric patients to be transferred to rest homes. The Social Welfare Department has agreed to pay the subsidy and has entered into a contract with the Canterbury Area Health Board.

The medical superintendent of Sunnyside Hospital, Dr Les Ding, said yesterday that the subsidy would not mean patients would be dumped into unsuitable rest homes as a way of saving money. That had occurred in Auckland in the 1970 s when a similar subsidy had been granted. In the late 19705' an Auckland psychiatric hospital had caused a scandal by unloading psychiatric patients into rest homes, which later sold the homes along with the patients.

Dr Ding said he did not envisage similar scandals in Canterbury, because of

the tight conditions for monitoring patients laid out in the contract with the department. Sunnyside also had an excellent back-up geriatric community support team, which was why the subsidy had been sought, he said.

Dr Ding said the hospital might have about 16 people who would be considered well enough to move into rest homes in the next six months, but patients would not be forced to leave. Social workers at Sunnyside had been arguing for more than 10 years that the subsidy should be paid to people who were assessed as being capable of living in the community again. These people were being denied their basic human rights. Before the new subsidy was approved any psychiatric patient over the age of 65, who had been in a psychiatric hospital for more than 13 weeks, had not been eligible for a

rest home subsidy if he or she had left the hospital.

Rest home subsidies are paid by the Social Welfare Department for people who do not need full nursing care. They are separate from the Geriatric Hospitals Special Assistance Scheme subsidies which are paid by the Health Department for people who need nursing care. The new rest home subsidy for psychiatric patients would be closely monitored by the department, said Dr Ding. Names of patients moved would be forwarded to the department every six months.

The geriatric community support team would also visit homes regularly and patients who regressed would be readmitted to Sunnyside. Dr Ding said the hospital had a list of rest homes it considered suitable for caring for former psychiatric patients, but all homes would be carefully checked.