Justice for Nicky Stevens

Nicky's family has asked for a face-to-face meeting with the Minister responsible for Mental Health (Jonathan Coleman) in Wellington, to discuss what are widespread issues with NZ’s Mental Health services:

• A failure to willingly involve families of patients in treatment and care decisions;

• A failure to enable independent reviews and investigations of deaths and serious harm incidents;

• A failure to support families grieving over the loss of loved ones;

• A failure to ensure appropriate security procedures are physically in place at mental health facilities;

• A failure by Mental Health services to accept accountability for deaths and serious harm incidents happening on their watch;

• A failure to recognize lay and community expertise in mental health treatment;

• An over-reliance on clinical opinion in this very inexact area of health;

• A shortage of resources, including staffing and training;

• A culture of ‘sweeping under the table’ serious harm incidents

• An unwillingness on the part of the Ministry of Health to recognize and ‘join the dots on’ the widespread and severe nature of these issues.

Nicky's family has already been hurt by the delays and obstacles put in our way by state agencies, while we are trying to establish the truth about what happened to their son.

They are appalled at the lengthy, time-consuming and expensive processes families such as theirs are put through in these circumstances.

Their hearts go out to the other families, because they know what the others are going through.

They only wish that the Government, the Ministry of Health and the state Mental Health services they mandate would have the same empathy, and determination to find the truth that affected families are showing.