Story: Mental health services in New Zealand
New Zealand’s first lunatic asylum opened in 1854, and for nearly 130 years most mentally ill people were generally looked after in special purpose residential institutions. In the 21st century most people suffering from mental illness are cared for in the community.
First asylums: In the 1840s mentally ill people were held in prisons, as there was nowhere else to care for them. The first ‘lunatic’ asylum was opened in 1854 in Karori, Wellington. From the 1860s asylums were built around the country. The main treatment was physical work and exercise. Violent or dangerous patients were sometimes tied up and restrained. People with mental illness were generally seen as incurable.
Changing attitudes: Attitudes to mental illness began to change. From 1911 asylums were known as mental hospitals and people were able to commit themselves voluntarily to get early treatment. After the First World War many soldiers suffered from shell shock (trauma from their war experiences). They were treated with dignity and compassion, and encouraged to talk about what had caused their illness. The success in treating former soldiers meant that the same techniques were applied to other patients.
New treatments and institutional change: From the late 1930s new treatments and drugs became available to treat mental illness. These changed the character of institutions, which became known as psychiatric hospitals rather than mental hospitals. New staff such as occupational therapists and social workers were employed to prepare patients for life and work outside the hospital. However, short-term psychiatric patients often received better care than long-term patients who lost touch with life outside the institution and weren’t expected to recover.
Closing hospitals and community care: From the 1970s there was a move to care for mentally ill people outside of large institutions. By the 1990s almost all psychiatric hospitals had closed and patients moved into community care. There were concerns that patients might not receive enough support. In the early 21st century non-government organisations are major providers of mental health services.
Contemporary policy issues: The transition from institutional to community based care has accompanied by many challenges. These have surfaced with general and systemic inquiries in 1995-96 and 2018, and on the Confidential Forum for Former Patients of Psychiatric Hospitals (2005-7). The need for clear national leadership and plans saw the formation of a Mental Health Commission from 1996 to 2012 and the promise to re-establish it in 2018.
Māori and Pacific mental health: Since the 1990s special programmes designed to meet the needs of Māori and Pacific Islanders were started. Both groups were over-represented in mental health statistics compared to their populations.
For the full article taken from Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand go here