Abuse in Care: The moment a woman discovered the Tokanui unmarked graves while horse riding
Wednesday, 13 July 2022
People with disabilities experience higher rates of violence than nondisabled people. Disabled people, their whānau and advocates are sharing stories of historical abuse at the Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry Disability, Deaf and Mental Health institutional care. The hearing runs from July 11 to July 20.
Content warning: This story contains accounts of abuse which some readers may find distressing.
In 1991, Caroline Arrell was riding her horse on a farm behind Tokanui Hospital. Her horse, Alice, tripped over a fence and fell down a hole.
Arrell tumbled off her horse onto what she thought was a hard piece of rock. It turned out to be a metal plaque that read, “In loving memory”, with the dates of a woman’s life.
**READ MORE:
* Abuse in Care: Men raped disabled children, paid staff for access
* Abuse in Care: Disabled woman hosed down naked, others sterilised without consent
* Abuse in Care: Survivor shares story of sexual abuse through sculpture to find freedom
**
It turned out to be one of nearly 500 unmarked graves of disabled people who lived at Tokanui near Te Awamutu in the Waikato.
“I have wondered how it must have felt to know that there was a high likelihood that you might end up in an unmarked grave, if you had no family involvement,” Arrell said in her witness statement at the Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry Disability, Deaf and Mental Health institutional care hearing.
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Arrell’s time at Tokanui began in 1979 when she was 18 years old, when she started working there as a student training officer.
She described mealtimes at one ward at Tokanui as “neglectful and abusive” – designed for the staff’s convenience.
Residents were fed only pureed food which she likened to a “cow-pat pie”.
Arrell said the food would arrive in heated ovens on a tractor, to be fed very fast to the residents who would wear bibs. Any food that dropped on to the bibs was scooped up and fed back to the residents.
The food was not tasted or tested before being given to the residents, Arrell said. She did try it once and described it as “cold and abhorrent”.
Toileting was a “public affair” and “devoid of any privacy”, she said. Residents were strapped on to the toilet until they had finished their business, with some people left sitting on the toilet for 45 minutes.
She also recalled a girl as young as 10 years old “turning into a zombie” after getting electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which Arrell said would take the girl three or four days to recover from.
The complaints process at Tokanui was not accessible and residents were usually not believed, Arrell said.
Whenever she tried to make a complaint herself, it was deemed “too much for the charge nurse” and she was blamed for making up stories.
Despite some positive changes in legislation for people with disabilities, there was still some way to go in terms of shaping and demanding things within the disability sector and towards disabled people, Arrell said.
“I am concerned about how much attitudinal traction we have made in addressing the rights and living conditions of people with disabilities,” she said.
She said a review was needed to see if institutional neglect was still happening in service providers today – it might not be obvious, “the subtlety is more covert”.
The hearing continues.
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