The number of children and young people treated at the controversial Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s may have been much higher than initially thought.
Lake Alice Hospital Photo: PUBLIC DOMAIN./ Pawful
Patients were subjected to massive doses of medication and the use of electroconvulsive therapy as a punishment.
Former patients have been in contact with the Abuse in Care Royal Commission, prompting it to revise the number who had been in the unit between 1972 and when it closed in 1978.
Although no official records were kept it was thought the number was around 200 young people, but now the number is believed closer to 300.
Lead Investigation counsel Andrew Molloy said the new figure has come from a raft of new and valuable information his team has obtained through interviews with former patients, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers and social workers - many of whom have never been interviewed before.
"To date, our investigation suggests that this number is likely to be about 50 percent higher than previously believed.
''We are just trying to identify more and more people who have actually gone through the unit and we would really like to encourage anyone who has been there and who hasn't yet come forward to actually come forward to us and we want to get the most comprehensive understanding we can of what happened to them and for their account to form part of our inquiry.''
He said the figure could certainly grown higher.
''We have got additional names of people we think may have been through but we are still going through a process of trying to confirm that so the 300 is a number that we are fairly confident were there, but we suspect it could be higher.''
''We are keen to find out and we want to make sure that we get the most complete picture of exactly who was there that we possibly can,'' he said.
Molloy said it is surprising concrete records were not kept at the unit.
''It surprised me and it may have been naivety on my part but I suspect it is in part the reality of the day but it is also unsatisfactory from our point of view and that is one of the reasons why we think at a very minimum for the people that were there we need to identify who was there so there is a record of them."
Leonie McInroe, an abuse survivor from the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s, said the more former patients came forward the better it would be to expose what went on.
She said the period was a dark piece of New Zealand history and it must never happen again.
"To make the positive changes that we need to ensure this doesn't happen again. It has to be brought out and when people are really brave to step forward, and it takes enormous bravery."
McInroe said she was deeply saddened that the numbers were growing but not really surprised.
"It is just a reflection of the dehumanising and disregard and value that was placed on the children that were there and it just reflects the maltreatment was everywhere, encompassed in Lake Alice."
McInroe said she was deeply grateful to the Royal Commission for its proactive approach.
The Ministry of Health responded to survivors' evidence given at the Redress hearing in late 2020, telling the Royal Commission it had not been able to compile a list of all the children that went through the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit.
The investigation team still wants to hear from more former patients, as well as their families, and former staff members and their families, about their experiences ahead of the public hearing commencing on 14 June, 2021.
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