Lake Alice Hospital was a rural psychiatric facility in
Lake Alice, Manawatū-Whanganui
Lake Alice is an area located in the southwestern part of Rangitikei District of the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. According to the 2013 census, it had a population of 2,724 inhabitants.
In the 2018 census, the Lake ...
, New Zealand. It was opened in August 1950, and had a maximum security unit. Like many New Zealand
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
s, Lake Alice was largely self-sufficient, with its own farm, workshop, bakery, laundry, and fire station. It also had swimming pools, glasshouses, and vegetable gardens.
The facility slowly shut down during the mid-1990s, finally closing its doors in October 1999.
The buildings and grounds were purchased in July 2006 by Auckland accountant and property developer group Lake Hicks Ltd.
Plans to develop the former psychiatric hospital were scrapped after the owners fell into financial difficulties. The property was sold again in December 2008. The new owners intend to demolish most of the buildings including the infamous maximum security unit. A few buildings such as the administration block will remain and the land will be used for farming.
Abuse investigation
Former patients of the hospital's child and adolescent unit made allegations that abuse took place there during the 1970s, including the use of
electroconvulsive therapy without anaesthetic and
paraldehyde
Paraldehyde is the cyclic trimer of acetaldehyde molecules. Formally, it is a derivative of 1,3,5-trioxane, with a methyl group substituted for a hydrogen atom at each carbon. The corresponding tetramer is metaldehyde. A colourless liquid, it ...
injections as punishment.
The New Zealand government issued a written apology in 2001, and has paid out a total of
NZ$
The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New Zea ...
10.7 million in compensation to a smaller group of 183 former patients
but refused to acknowledge and offer redress for the long term effects of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse and torture. This forced applications to the
UN Committee Against Torture
The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT)) is an international human rights treaty under the review of the United Nation ...
(CAT) in 2019.
In the Crown's own internal business policy documents it stated it would not recognize long term effects of abuse and would then categorize different forms of abuse and torture in a payment matrix.
Dr Selwyn Leeks, the former head of the unit, gave up the practice of medicine in 2006 to forestall a disciplinary hearing by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria.
The New Zealand Police conducted an investigation dubbed Operation Lake Alice, which included interviews with former staff and 63 former patients. In June 2021, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care held an 11 day hearing into the practices of Selwyn Leeks and the Adolescent Unit. On 8 June 2021, police announced they would lay charges after finding evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Leeks and one other former staff member, then in their 90s, were deemed unfit to stand trial due to ill health and were not formally charged. Leeks died several months later in January 2022. One other surviving former staff member will face prosecution.
References
External links
Lake Alice Hospital Website: critical website, with photos of buildings
{{Authority control
Psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand
Defunct hospitals in New Zealand
Hospital buildings completed in 1950
Hospitals established in 1950
1950 establishments in New Zealand
Hospitals disestablished in 1999
1999 disestablishments in New Zealand
Medical controversies in New Zealand
Scandals in New Zealand