Vulnerable children undergo alternative medicine treaments, but CYF refuses to give details

Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Convicted sex offender Frank Russell Walmsley was given permission to be alone in a room with a girl he allegedly abused to perform a form of alternative medicine known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) admits it funds alternative medicine treatments for vulnerable children, but refuses to disclose details.

Information revealed under the Official Information Act (OIA) explained children in CYF's care might have alternative medicine treatments as part of their care plan.

Funding of alternative medicine treatment received national attention during the trial of convicted sex offender and former CYF caregiver Frank Russell Walmsley, who was found guilty on 52 charges of sexual and physical abuse against teenagers in his care during a Timaru High Court trial in April.

During the trial, the court heard Walmsley, 57, used emotional freedom technique (EFT) - which has been likened to acupuncture without needles - as a front to see four different girls between 2005 and 2012.

**READ MORE:

* Former CYF caregiver found guilty

* Alternative medicine in the spotlight**

Trial witnesses, including EFT trainer Liz Hart, claimed they had received money from CYF to perform EFT on abused children.

At the time, CYF was unable to confirm whether it had ever paid for the services of EFT practitioners.

In response to an OIA request, CYF deputy chief executive Viv Rickard was still unable to confirm whether the organisation had ever funded EFT and refused to specify other treatments it funded. He could not identify any direct payments made to Hart in Ministry records.

'I can advise that alternative medicine treatments may form part of a child or young person's care plan,' Rickard said.

He refused to explain the treatments funded by CYF as the Ministry would need to 'manually review thousands of files' to provide the information.

'The Ministry is unable to centrally report information about the types and nature of alternative medicine treatments that children and young people in care receive,' Rickard said.

'The greater public interest is in the effective and efficient administration of the public service.'

Labour Party children's issues spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said it was 'alarming' CYF could not list treatments it did and did not fund.

She wanted there needed to be flexibility to meet the children's needs, but they should only have access to 'evidence-based, well-researched, safe services'.

'To say 'we can't find it on our system' doesn't give me much faith in the protocols of what is funded and what is not,' she said.

'These are really vulnerable children … we need to make sure that when they are accessing different forms of support that they're not going to do more harm than good or be a waste of money.

Society for Science Based Healthcare co-founder Mark Honeychurch said there were many 'unproven treatments' on offer which had not been supported by good quality evidence - such as EFT and aromatherapy.

'It is our hope that no government department is funding any of these therapies,' Honeychurch said.

He was concerned CYF was spending taxpayer money on 'ineffective treatments'.

'If CYF are not tracking their spending, it would be very hard for them to know what their money is being spent on,' he said.

'This opens the door for spending on treatments that don't work.'

Honeychurch was not confident CYF had a list of approved, evidence-based treatments that could be used on children.

Minister for Social Development Anne Tolley did not elaborate on the criteria for treatments when asked what types of alternative medicine CYF would or would not fund.

'I would expect CYF to make sure that vulnerable children are able to access the most appropriate treatment, in consultation with medical professionals, so that they can recover from trauma and thrive,' Tolley said.