COMMENTS FROM SURVIVORS AND FAMILY OF NZ INSTITUTIONS

Picture is of lake alice villas 

Just some of the comments from the Lake Alice website from 1970 to 1990 to give you an idea of what is was like for people in  New Zealand institutions 

I was at Lake Alice for the briefest time...2 weeks. But in that time I a was overdosed (and died) on Stellazine & Mellerill. These are psychotic drugs. I have never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Dr Pugmire was my Dr and he promised me I would never got shock treatment, but that never stopped me from being afraid that I might get it. In the time I was there I had my 15th birthday. While I don't remember the other patients, I saw the horror of shock treatment and what it did to people. I remember Fridays @ 3 pm, because of what happened then...

mandi May 20th, 2013 1:24 am :

I was a brutally tortured and raped in CHERRY FARM Hospital but this is what this place is a hospital so the New Zealand Government don’t stand for much if they allow this kind of crime in a hospital in NEW ZEALAND as my big problem id for me to try and get my head around the point of all this torture and deep sleep programme as i haven’t slept so much in a HOSPITAL (if you can it this ) but now its all shut down and made in a cheese factory and a rest home but according to the MINISTRY OF HEALTH this hospital should still be operating as it was never sold as it was never closed down as it should be still open for business and making more people die over E.C.T (shock treatment ) as this was abolished in 1992 and still they use it today which is a criminal issue to do such a thing to a human being as its so wrong in the eyes of society as this hospital doesn’t have a licence to kill people because they need treatment and end up deceased as a result  of this ETC as its so wrong as its a crime for all hospitals to do so in todays society

You were lucky you never received ECT. From what I heard from reading this website, reports from media, my sister Y who was in LA as a patient and other collections of information, it was a terrible experience (I was going to use another word for it but its censored). My sister lost two years of her life having ECT. Are you sure during these two weeks you were in there, apart from the psychotic drugs, nothing else happened?

Two weeks maybe only a short time but under the circumstances of what happened at LA to other patients, maybe there was a slight chance. Have you ever asked yourself why other people remember you, but you can';t remember them?

I am glad you came out of this alive, and a survivor. My sister Y came out it as survivor, but there were ones who did not and are still 'fighting' LA even after all these years of the hospital being closed and pulled down.

My father was sent to the lake when he was fourteen and didn't get out until he was 21. He was a victim of physical and mental abuse, and was also "treated" with paraldehyde(sorry if it's spelt wrong) and god knows what else, waking days later naked on a concrete floor. He was threatened to be put in the lake with the eels like the other one's who didn't listen. He is to this day severely institutionalised and has been in and out of wards his entire life. I want to see this and other places he was in, but I don't think I could stomach it. I visited one once, Cherry Farm, and got so wound up I couldn't breathe and had to leave. Those of you that are doing it for shits and giggles, shame on you!! This place and places like it have destroyed my family!!

I am very interested in your site and would love be kept up to date as to the progress of this historical site and buildings. My grandmother was a patient there and thank God she was transferred from there and moved a rest-home. The family managed to influence the staff to have her moved and plus knew a staff member that helped make that possible. All my grandmother remembers was screaming the entire time and now I know why she ended with a diagnoses of dementia. She was only depressed when initially was admitted and came out with complete loss of memory. Also I had a friend that was a nurse there since the early 70's and no-one knows what happened to her. I'm sure she would many stories to tell as each time I called back there, I often called on her then and she always remarked about how she enjoyed it and loathed it. I understand now what she meant by that. I don't if she is still alive but when I travel back to Wanganui I will track down the family as I went to school with her sister. Up until now I did not know why Lake Alice was closed down. Thanks Nathan for this most informative website. I hope the building stays, purely for historical reason and for the staff to be reminded for the horror they caused. I will keep an eye on your website. It's great, Love It!

i am 17 and i have been in and out of the psychiatric ward in new plymouth (te puna waiora) for the last 4 years (since i was 13), i have many many personal stories about what has happened to me and what i have witnessed at the psych ward and can quite believe what has happened at Lake Alice. My grandmother was a psych nurse at ward 17 which was the psych ward before Tepuna waiora; she doesn’t like talking about it though and have only ever managed to get her to talk about it once when i asked her if she had ever witnessed ECT. she said she had and said that it was sickening. while at the psych ward on one of my many admissions (i cant remember which one as i can barely remember the last two years due to the type and amount of meds they where giving me) i managed to talk to a middle aged patient whom had also been in and out since they were a teenager, i managed to get him to tell me a little about when he was in LA; he had mixed emotions about lake alice, he spoke of being beaten up, beating the nurses up, ECT and how volatile everything was, but he also felt the need of some of the positives of lake alice, how the nurses would sometimes take them to the pub and so on. i have also spoken to a nurse who worked there and she told me of only positive things and that she enjoyed working there. like the patient that spoke of lake alice i have both negative and positive stories about my experiences over the last 4 years. if anyone would like to talk some more then please comment back and i will do my best to reply :)

my father suffered in that place, thats something that stays with you for life. the people who hurt him are lucky i don’t know where they are...because if i did know, or ever found out, they would suffer for what they did to him.

I worked at Lake Alice in the early 1990s shortly before it closed. I'm grateful that someone has memorialised the place in some way. I had no pictures... I thought it perverse to take photos that might include residents and I regret that. I witnessed some awful nursing practice but also some great compassion at times. I did enjoy working with the residents and in some ways Lake Alice kick started an interest in mental health advocacy for me. It never had the warm and homely feeling that some other hospitals had... but I can't say that it was particularly spooky (even on night shift).

Hello again, I thought I could give you some insight into the day to day running of the block. On a side note, I have spoken to WDHB and requested my files, Renee said a few weeks so will see what happens.

My fist encounter with the NSU was when I was 15, straight from the outside. Greeted by Harold and a few others, was taken into the bath room, the one in your photos of the bath in the middle, made to strip off and wash with all these nurses watching. I was frightened and intimidated. Then given short back and sides and locked in a cell in the south corridor. Spent four days in the cell, let out only once each day for a shower. Then I was integrated to the Day room. Most were quite friendly but there were a few who saw a young 15 yr old as a sexual target. You had to grow up and harden up very quickly to survive.

Get up time was 7.30, the North corridor got up earlier at 6.45am. You had to fold up your bedding, leave your night gown in the cell and march down the corridors in the nick carrying your piss pot to the ablutions. 3 minute shower, had to shave, only 4 razors, all blunt, never cleaned and get dressed. Your clothes you would place in a plastic box outside your cell when you got locked in for the night would be in the ablution block next morning. Most humiliating walking those corridors in the nick!

From there to the dinning room for breakfast approx. 8.20am, then to dayroom at 8.45am. OT went at 9.15am for those who behaved, a few on cleaning gangs would clean the ablutions, the corridors, all the door knobs and locks were brass and had to be polished each day. That lasted an hour, then to the dayroom for the rest of the day. Play cards or read, thats it. The toilet was only opened on the half hour, no privacy in there and always homosexual activity. The hospital gave tobacco rations but only staff had lighters. Lunch was 12.15pm and then back to dayroom to do same but also TV to watch. If its fine at 12.30pm we all went out to the main yard. Tennis was played, most lay on the concrete to sleep or walked round and round the yard. OT went again at 1.30 till 4.45pm. Tea at 5pm then back to dayroom. Bed time was a choice of 3 times, 6pm, 8pm or 10.30pm. If you've been naughty it had to be 6. Only a book and plastic glass of water in the cells from South through to mid West corridor, those above had the bonus of a radio. South only had a mattress on floor, the rest was a steel platform bolted across the window, the North got the luxury with carpet, a real bed and cabinet. I got there a few times in my later stay at LA, but seemed to get into trouble and start back in the south all over again. that was hard to take.

Hi Sharon

I remember them! So when they were holding me down while Selwyn Leaks gave me ECT for running away you were possibly at school unawares. OMG. Think about that. Cause thats what they did. Sorry but you need to know 

Hey Dawn - appreciate your comments. Guess what - I tried to get my files 25 years ago and they have destroyed them!

Reply

Dawn

09/02/2011 3:47pm

Update to my last comment : sister got a letter from the DHB about her LA file, saying "they cannot at the moment find her file but they are looking" or something to those words because it was all technical hoo ha. Will keep you updated.

Hi guys,

My grandad was admitted to Lake Alice in the late 70's/early 80's after suffering chronic migraines. 

They performed ECT on him on numerous occasions without anaesthetic. He has told me a few sad stories but wont go in to too much detail. 

I am originally from Wanganui and have been to Lake Alice with my cousins to explore the grounds. It is extremely eerie and has a very sad feeling about it. I think the photos do it justice as there are still abandoned wheel chairs left in the yards and sitting outside the secure unit. As mentioned on this website there are people that live on site and closely monitor any approaching visitors. 

I am interested in hearing stories and really enjoyed looking through the photos on this website. 

If i am able to obtain any more information from my grandad i will post it on the forum. 

Picture of lake alice secure wing 

You know who else was involved? The police. Yep they drove me to lake alice! My school principal. Yep he suggested it to my parents and my family doctor! Too many people had their fingers in the pie. And 40 years later and I am still suffering

Does anyone remember a woman named Yvonne (she is my sister) and she was at Lake Alice for four years (don't know the dates but it was sometime in the 1970's? I think) and she also had ECT. She cannot remember anything being a patient there. But the good news is she is a survivor and she is now happily stronger and leading an excellent life without after effects. I am sorry for the ones that have, did or are not survive.

I hate to think what happened to my Mum there after she was mis diagnosed with a mental illness (in the 1980's ), which turned out to be a medical condition. She was locked up and given ECT . I remember going through locked doors to visit her when I was a small child( she was locked up after she tried to escape to get home to her children ). She now resides in an old folks home in Palmerston Nth , and her condition is such she is unable to speak. We will never know whether she was treated fairly there or not which is very very sad.Just thought that all you supposed ghost hunters should think about these people rather than just trying to get cheap thrills.

Hi Flo - omg! Your mums name is not Beverly is it? I have been looking for her for years. I was in there in the 70's and I went thru some tough timers there. 40 years later and I am still not over it

I have only just discovered your website and have been disturbed about the comments of EX LA NURSE. She writes that she has fond memories of working there and then she writes that some people who worked their were not so good and mis doings are the fault of the medical profession and justifies anything that may have happened there as nothing compared to other such places at the time. EX LA NURSE abuse of innocent children of the worst possible kind occurred there!! We who read about the abuse that happened there wonder how something like this could have happened. Well the answer is in the writings of EX LA NURSE. This is a nurse willing to deny any wrong doings of the place and justify herself as a good person by helping to raise funds for a swimming pool. Do you think the victims of LA abuse give a stuff about your pool? There was a doctor who was behind the abuse of these children and his name has been released, but what about all the nursings staff who either par took in the abuse or who did nothing, cleaning staff, kitchen staff etc. All these people need to be named, it is not ok to witness the abuse of children and do nothing about it. It is not ok to have worked in a place where abuse occurred and to make out there was nothing wrong with the place. Of course this place is going to have a bad vibe, a lot of bad things happened there, seriously damaged people lived there, tear down the buildings and the land will forever hold that energy. And lets not forget there would have been a lot of really good people who worked there too and gave their all for others. EX LA NURSE your comments disgust me.

If Ex-LA Nurse has fond memories of working at LA, how about giving my sister's two-years-she-lost-memories-being-a-patient back? She lost them thru ECT and beep-beep she beep-beep-beep cannot remember! Don’t know if that is a good or bad thing though?