A Twist of Kate: The Castaway
“From the earliest days of mental health legislation in New Zealand, around 1880, there has been a view that there are occasions when people with mental disorder (however that might be defined) would need treatment without their consent. However, the ‘proper’ extent of the use of detention and compulsory treatment remains controversial.”
Alone in a city too big for comfort l too many people l too much loneliness the spirit gets lost under the noise and clatter l you can become part of the crowd l and fade into insignificance l or you can express your craziness l and get singled out….
Sometimes I want to escape from this competitive age but there is no sanctuary l just a return to the psychiatric ward. l We pay a high price in our search for enlightenment …
Hiding in the shadows we feel safe l the world outside seems full of hostile images … a voice keeps saying l there are glimmers of hope l so keep on believing l one day your spirit will be strong again l one day your spirit will start dancing l dancing l dancing ”
– ‘Glimmers of Light’ [excerpts] by Frank Bangaytaken from Alan Beattie’s Moving My Mind ‘Metaphors of Mobility in the Poetry of Psychiatric Survivors.”
Our Historical Dreadlocks
The IDCC&R Act or Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003 links to the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act (CPMIPA), 2003. In short, they give the court powers to order individuals with mental impairment who have been charged with or convicted of an imprisonable offence to ‘accept‘ (my italics) compulsory care and rehabilitation under the Act.
The IDCC&R Act also allows for the transfer of people from prison or mental health services where they meet the criteria for intellectual disability under the Act. To ordinary me, it seems a chronology of events leading to Kate’s improper detainment is more understandable based on our understanding of the Act being applied.
Kate was arrested in Carterton in relation to a ‘perverting the course of justice’ charge. She was held over the weekend in their cells, transferred on to Arohata Women’s prison and subsequently transferred on again to Rangipapa. Coincidental fancy footwork?
I suppose a logical next question might be why? Actually, it’s a question but it’s not necessarily mine. We know the why, she’s currently being treated for Delusional Disorder, a finding of mental disorder was therefore a precondition to Kate being made the subject of a compulsory treatment order, and that order being extended.
The term ‘mental disorder’ is defined in s2 of the Act in the following terms:
“Mental disorder, in relation to any person, means an abnormal state of mind (whether of a continuous or an intermittent nature), characterised by delusion, or by disorders of mood or perception or volition or cognition, of such a degree that it poses a serious danger to the health or safety of the person or of others; or seriously diminishes the capacity of that person to take care of himself or herself.”
Back in July 2006, in a paper entitled, ‘Compulsory Psychiatric Treatment And The Meaning Of ‘Mental Disorder’ published in the New Zealand Law Journal, Nigel Brown, the then Convenor of the Mental Health Review Tribunal expressed in this article his personal views around the subject:
“Consider the term ‘abnormal state of mind’. Whilst the mental disorder definition states that an abnormal state of mind must be characterised by delusions and/or certain disorders, that is not to say that when delusions and/or one or more of the stated disorders exist, an abnormal state of mind must therefore exist.
The necessary ingredients of an abnormal state of mind are identified in the mental disorder definition but whether those ingredients, when they are present, comprise an abnormal state of mind is another matter. The question is always whether the abnormalities described by clinicians amount to an abnormal state of mind in terms of the mental disorder definition.
In what may be an uncomfortably arbitrary manner, the decision maker simply declares that the patient’s state of mind is, or is not, abnormal. Whilst the decision may be straightforward in some cases, it is less so in others. The patient with ongoing and active bizarre delusions clearly has an abnormal state of mind.
But is the patient who is a high achieving and valuable member of the community who has mild depression (an undoubted disorder of mood) to be regarded as having an abnormal state of mind when in all other respects the patient is psychologically and emotionally healthy and strong? Is that what Parliament intended?”
In 2011, in the case of Katherine Raue, who was in all other respects of her personhood healthy and strong, I wonder too. And I’m still wondering WHO? Who knows that dance well enough to choreograph such a fancy piece of castaway footwork?
Our fellowship as blogwriters aside, how is it that Kate continues to be singled out to be at the centre of such seemingly dogmatic attempts to keep her in Rangipapa indefinitely? I often wonder about this, wouldn’t you if this was your friend?
RELATED POSTS
1. Throwing Out the Lifelines 2. An Anchor in the Social World 3. Rights of Passage 4. Katherine 5. Ships in the Night 6. Alone Alone All All Alone 7. Systems that take the Kate 8. Model Citizen: A Piece of Kate 9. A Twist of Kate: The Castaway
