Cannabis & mental Health in New Zealand
- From: Claude@xxxxxxx (Claude)
- Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:41 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-12-11/35652.html
Community Care or 'Sheltered Villages' for Seriously Mentally-ill
Patients?
Epoch Times New Zealand Staff Dec 11, 2005
Is the 'one-size fits all' methodology for treating de-institutionalised
mentally ill patients the answer? People with serious mental illnesses are
now being exposed to potentially life-threatening drugs that were rarely
seen 20 years ago.
Without 'one on one' care, the task of monitoring seriously mentally ill
people who are out in the community has become a game of chance.
It is now recognized by medical experts that alcohol and drug taking can
provoke psychotic behaviour in mentally ill patients. Even cannabis, known
for its depressive effects on school children, has been closely linked to
violent acts by mentally ill people. Cannabis, P and other drugs also
interfere with and inhibit the effects of the medication taken by patients
further undermining treatment and control.
Cannabis was believed to be a factor in the murders committed by Stephen
Anderson who murdered his father and friends of the family in 1997 at
Raurimu, Lachlan Jones who viciously killed Malcom Begg with an axe in
1999 and then committed suicide and Johnny Manu who knifed ACC worker
Janice Pike to death in the same year.
With the stabbing in Henderson last week of Robert Norcross and the
subsequent stabbing and death of 65-year-old Kevin Newman, the question of
public safety, and even patient safety, has again become an issue in the
eyes of many New Zealanders. The alleged offender, who is being treated
under the Mental Health services, was shot by the police three times after
refusing put down his weapon.
Within days there were reports of another incident at Arthur's Pass where
an elderly man was attacked with an axe. The individual is also a mental
health patient and has been admitted to Hillmorton Hospital for a
psychiatric report.
Some mental health experts concede that processes may need to be examined,
but Waitemata Health Board chief executive Dr Dwayne Crombie says that
although the condition of the mentally ill man arrested in the Henderson
incident was worsening, there was nothing to indicate a violent turn of
behaviour.
However, the recent events are also a reminder of a series of violent
crimes committed by mentally ill patients in the past, which involved
serious lapses in patient monitoring and assessment. In 2001, Mark Burton
stabbed his mother to death just after being released from a hospital
psychiatric unit and, in 2000, manic depressive Sean Mitchell's suicide
was attributed to a lack of monitoring.
Despite a review from the Waitemata Health Board which reported on systems
implementation to improve communication and exchange of information
between the various mental health services to minimise adverse health
effects, the latest episodes of psychotic violence involving patients
under 'community care', indicate that the system appears to be failing not
only the patients themselves but the public.
With many apparently unpredictable factors involved in the 'community
care' of seriously mentally ill patients and those prone to psychotic
episodes, other options such as 'sheltered villages' with 24-hour
residential care have been proposed. These would cater for patients in
need of respite care and those who need full-time supervision.
.
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