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Lake Alice - Apology and subsequent actions
Thank you
The RANZCP sincerely thanks all of the survivors, their families and whanau who were part of the apology event on 20 February 2024.
We understand your anger and we thank you for your courage to attend and to share your personal experiences of Lake Alice with us. Your experiences were not psychiatry as it is intended, and the actions of Selwyn Leeks amounted to torture. That must never happen again, for anyone.
We told you we want to ensure psychiatry is a trusted field, where consumers and patients know they will be treated with care and dignity and feel safe when seeing a psychiatrist.
On this part of our website, we will provide updates of the actions we are taking to fulfil that promise to you.
Abuse in Care Royal Commission – final report release
The final report of the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care was released in Parliament on Wednesday 24 July at 4pm, and survivors, whānau, families, advocates, and the public were able to witness this historically significant event, either in person or via Parliament TV. Listen to the recording of that Parliamentary session.
Read the full report, Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light. We are continuing to work through the report to assess any recommendations for RANZCP, and we will be communicating with the survivor group once we have established our next steps. We have released this statement in the interim.
We do note that the report calls on the many agencies involved with the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit to make a public apology to survivors and whānau. The RANZCP held a public apology with invited survivors on February 20, 2024. This was intended as the start of College’s ongoing commitment to survivors, to ensure a similar situation cannot occur again.
We have also written to the Prime Minister to urge his government to develop a fit-for-purpose redress scheme to assist survivors and we will continue to advocate for this. We note that the Crown Response Unit and Archives New Zealand are also working on initiatives to make it easier for survivors of abuse to access their personal records while they were in care. This includes Lake Alice. Some survivors have previously asked RANZCP for access to records from while they were in Leeks’ care, however the records belong to the health service which managed the government facility. RANZCP has no access to or ownership of any patient records at any time – our purpose is to train clinicians who wish to become psychiatrists.
Things we are already doing
- Working in multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), so there is transparency and oversight of our practice by other doctors, not just our immediate colleagues.
- Individual and group supervision so that we be aware of peer standards and discuss personal reactions that might influence our practice.
- Keeping up with evidence-based and culturally safe practice by completing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities including online and in-person education sessions and undertaking site visits.
- We have a Position Statement that outlines the RANZCP’s stance on past treatments which were harmful.
- Advocating to the New Zealand Government on behalf of survivors by outlining our support for the planned Redress Scheme. We have recently received a letter in response from the Hon Erica Stanford, as Minister responsible for coordinating the Crown response to the Royal Commission, which noted the Government remains committed to carefully considering the Royal Commission’s recommendations. Note that the Crown is providing public updates on this work with its most recent communication here.
- A presentation was given at the 2024 RANZCP Congress in Canberra, outlining what happened at Lake Alice and explaining what the College’s apology in February was for. It was made clear that the apology was not universally accepted by the survivors who attended, but that there was an appreciation expressed by many attendees for the College’s willingness to speak to and listen to survivors, face to face.
Things we are planning to do
We are educating all practicing psychiatrists about the events at Lake Alice and their role in preventing them ever recurring via presentations at our national and binational conferences.
Progress: Presentations given to our Members at their NZ Conference September 2023 and at our Binational Congress in Canberra May 2024. Scoping under way for opportunities to give a similar presentation at upcoming conferences relating to Child and Adolescent psychiatry.
Educating all future psychiatrists about historical abuse and their role in preventing its recurrence via the development of an online resource for use by all training centres. This resource will be designed in collaboration with Oliver Sutherland and survivors of abuse at Lake Alice and other psychiatric facilities.
Progress: Underway, due to be completed by December 2024.
Improving cultural competence and safety for all practicing psychiatrists.
Progress: Regular Takarangi framework-based cultural competence trainings underway in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2024. Cultural safety training and resources being developed by RANZCP for its Members, with individual streams for New Zealand and Australia.
Reviewing processes for sharing information between key organisations about psychiatrists about whom there are concerns. That means we will work with the Medical Council and the Health and Disability Commission to ensure there are adequate ways that work for people to safely raise concerns.
Apology to the survivors of Lake Alice
Apology wording, read by RANZCP President, Dr Elizabeth Moore.
20 February 2024
Palmerston North
To all those impacted by the horrific abuses conducted at the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit, specifically the torturous actions carried out and directed by psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks: we are sorry.
To survivors, to their whānau, and to those who are descendants of those who suffered and who did not survive, the RANZCP offers a full and sincere apology.
You were failed.
We know the courageous attempts to raise concerns by young, vulnerable people detained at Lake Alice were ignored. We know that the Ngā Wairiki and Ngāti Apa peoples suffered and that their uri continue to feel the impact.
We know many agencies repeatedly failed you. We know our part in this and acknowledge the actions and inactions of previous members that allowed Leeks to escape proper investigation and punishment.
Your trust was broken.
We are committed to people receiving the best mental health care, guided by evidence and expertise.
The barbaric abuse conducted by Leeks at Lake Alice was not psychiatry of any form. It is not and never will be condoned. That this harm occurred at all, under the guise of treatment, is a travesty.
We know there was denial. That included denying that the abuse was taking place and that contributed to the subsequent chain of decisions.
Since the 1990s, RANZCP has been vocal in calling for the investigation of the many allegations of Leeks’ abuse. In the absence of any finding or action against Leeks, the RANZCP was unable to act. The delivery of the Beautiful Children report in December 2022 formally condemned Leeks’ egregious actions for the first time.
The RANZCP rescinded Leeks’ fellowship immediately.
We acknowledge that for many, these steps came too late. For our organisation’s part in this failure to bring Leeks to justice at the earliest opportunity, we again offer our unconditional apology.
There must never be a repeat of Lake Alice.
The shroud of secrecy around Leeks and his abuses was aided by working in isolation. Now, psychiatrists work transparently and collaboratively, in teams, with supervision, and ongoing training and development.
Our peers, teams and communities hold us to account in our practice. There are robust, safe channels for external reporting.
Complaints are not lost or ignored. We embrace our partnership with community members with lived experience and have a strategy to embed lived-experience knowledge and expertise across our College.
Together we will continue to evolve to deliver care in the best possible way. This apology, as with the apologies given over many years, does not change what has gone before. It is given to convey our acknowledgement of mistakes made, and the impact of these for so many, over such a prolonged period.
We are committed to listening to the recommendations of the Royal Commission with you when they are released, so that our next steps are meaningful and appropriate, and importantly, designed together.
Once again, we are sorry.
Easy Read version
Survivors’ personal messages to RANZCP
Survivors who were unable to attend the apology event provided these personal messages to be played on the day and have asked that we make this available for the wide public to also hear. Please note that the content may be triggering for some people.
Survivors, whānau and family may continue to access the services provided through the Abuse in Care Royal Commission
Further support lines and advice are available in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand
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