Director of Proceedings v Taikura Trust - Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination Service
Human Rights Review Tribunal HRRT No. 024/2011 [2012] NZHRRT 3 (22 March 2012)
Director of Proceedings v Aranui Home & Hospital Ltd - Rest Home
Human Rights Review Tribunal HRRT No. 025/2011 [2012] NZHRRT 4 (22 March 2012)
Two Auckland health and disability service providers agreed to pay compensation to the estate of a 43-year-old woman unlawfully detained in a secure dementia unit for more than a year. The confidential payments will go to the woman's daughter, and are mentioned in decisions released publicly by the Human Rights Review Tribunal. The Tribunal made declarations against Taikura Trust and Aranui Home and Hospital Limited (trading as Oak Park Dementia Unit) for failures of care and breaches of the woman's rights.
The woman (who has since died and whose name is suppressed) had a complex history, which included severe psychological trauma, depression and alcohol abuse. Admitted to Auckland City Hospital in May 2007 in a confused state, she was assessed as not having capacity to make decisions about her own care. It was decided that an application should be made for a Court order to place her in an appropriate residential facility. The application was prepared but never filed with the Court.
In August 2007, the woman was discharged from hospital and placed by Taikura Trust at Oak Park, a secure dementia unit caring mostly for older people. She understood she was legally required to live there. She was assessed by Taikura Trust three times over the following ten months, and on each occasion she expressed her wish to leave Oak Park and to live somewhere more suitable. At various times she clearly expressed her frustration at having to live in the dementia unit, and was recorded as being unhappy and increasingly depressed about her situation. In an e-mail to another clinician in June 2008 one doctor wrote:
"I would agree with her perspective that where she is is worse than a prison."
In August 2008, the Community Alcohol and Drug Service discovered there was no Court order and therefore no legal requirement for the woman to remain at Oak Park if she did not wish to be there. Over the following two months, arrangements were made for the woman's transition and she left Oak Park in October 2008.
The Director of Health and Disability Proceedings brought claims on the woman's behalf against Taikura Trust and Aranui Home and Hospital Ltd in the Human Rights Review Tribunal. The Tribunal made orders by consent of the parties that Taikura Trust had breached the woman's rights by failing to provide services in a manner that respected her dignity and independence, failing to provide services with reasonable care and skill, and failing to co-operate with other providers to ensure quality and continuity of services. Aranui Home and Hospital Ltd was also found to have breached her rights by failing to provide services with reasonable care and skill.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal's decision is available at http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHRRT/2012/
Last reviewed February 2019