[Checkpoint - Lake Alice Hospital]

Rights Information
Year
1983
Reference
328993
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1983
Reference
328993
Media type
Audio
Duration
00:16:34
Credits
RNZ Collection
Oomen, Monique, Reporter
Radio New Zealand (estab. 1989), Broadcaster

A recording of a Checkpoint report by Monique Oomen, in which Lake Alice Hospital patients talk about how they feel about their confinement and treatment in the psychiatric hospital's maximum security villa, the MSV.
It includes excerpts of an interview with Dr Sydney Pugmire, Lake Alice Medical Superintendent and former patient Brian Johnson.

Unidentified men talk about the lack of rights they experience in the MSV.
A former patient of the MSV Brian Johnson is interviewed about his call for it to be shut down.He says there is always potential for violence to explode in the MSV.
Dr Pugmire says violent episodes are quite rare and compares it to the situation on board submarines where men are also confined in a small area.
Brian Johnson talks about patients being told by nurses to bang their heads against a wall. Dr Pugmire dismisses this as nonsense.
Johnson says nurses often used more force than was necessary and says they also sexually assaulted patients. Dr Pugmire denies these claims but says there have been complaints of patients attempting to sexually assault other patients. He outlines steps taken to stop this occurring.
Brian Johnson says attempts were made to write to the Ombudsman but he alleges their mail was intercepted.
Dr Pugmire says patients are permitted to write letters to their relatives and to a list of approved people - which includes the Ombudsman, but other letters and visitors are restricted as they can endanger both the patients and the visitors.