Almost half of all New Zealanders will experience some form of mental distress and/or illness in their lifetimes. Mental distress falls on a continuum, with some experiencing mild to moderate distress and other people having much more severe experiences.
In Aotearoa New Zealand when a person is believed to not have capacity to make decisions or care for themselves, or to be a risk to their own or someone else’s safety, the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act can be used.
One New Zealander goes under this law every 46 minutes, which allows practitioners to enforce treatment on people believed to need acute mental health support.
Chloe shares some of her personal experiences with the Mental Health Act, some of the wisdom she’s gleaned, and her thoughts on the next steps for this law’s change.
What Chloe experienced
“I have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act countless times over my 25-year journey with mental illness,” Chloe says.
“While being under the Mental Health Act I have had inpatient hospital admissions of up to a year in length. One experience that I remember clearly is the first time I was put on a long-term treatment order. This order meant I had to stay in hospital for six months or more. I had a lawyer assigned to me and I had to appear before a judge.
“At that time, I was 17 years old and had some insight. I knew I needed hospital treatment. However, when treatment decisions were made solely by clinical staff, I felt frightened and scared.
“This fear escalated knowing nurses had the power to chemically restrain me (by administering sedatives and anti-psychotic medication through intramuscular injections) and/or physically restrain me at any point and potentially put me into seclusion. Seclusion is when someone can be placed in a small room, with no windows and a cardboard toilet with a mattress on the floor. These rooms are locked, and service users can stay within them for up to eight hours at a time.
“But, if I wanted help I needed to accept these parameters.”