• The Government will make a rapid payment of $20,000 to terminally ill Lake Alice abuse survivors.
• Payments are for those who were aged 17 or under in Lake Alice between 1972 and 1977.
• The Ministry of Health will deliver payments after a letter confirming a terminal diagnosis.

The Government will make a “rapid payment” of $20,000 to terminally ill Lake Alice abuse survivors.

The payments would be available to persons who were 17 years old or under and placed in the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit between 1972 and 1977.

In a statement this evening, the minister responsible for co-ordinating the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry, Erica Stanford, said Lake Alice survivors had “informed us there are a small number of their group who are expected to only have a short time left to live”.

“That’s why Cabinet has agreed to make a rapid payment of $20,000 available for terminally ill survivors,” Stanford said.

She said this was just the first step.

“We know many survivors of the unit have spent their lives in financial hardship and with significant health issues because of the ongoing impact of the torture and abuse they experienced.

“While we can never fully make redress for or right the harm survivors experienced, I can confirm the Government is also working at pace on a specific redress package for Lake Alice survivors to acknowledge the torture that took place,” Stanford said.

The $20,000 payment would be delivered through the Ministry of Health, as it already operates a historical claims process for Lake Alice survivors.

“The only supporting material needed to apply for the payment would be a letter from a medical professional confirming a terminal diagnosis and prognosis of six months or less,” Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said.

One of the units at the former Lake Alice psychiatric facility near Bulls. Photo / Mark Mitchell

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“It is deeply saddening that young people in Lake Alice, who should have been safe there, were subject to mistreatment and torture. Any harm, and especially any abuse as result of trust placed in government institutions, is unacceptable.”

The announcement comes after the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate abuse and neglect of children, young people and adults in state and faith-based care from 1950 to 1999.

The case study inquiry by the Abuse in Care Royal Commission into the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit was presented to Parliament in 2022 and found the use of electric shocks and painful paraldehyde injections to punish children in the 1970s amounted to torture.

It described a litany of abusive practices used at the psychiatric facility, including electric shocks as punishment administered to various parts of the children’s bodies, including the head, torso, legs and genitals.

It said the anticonvulsant drug paraldehyde, which can be painful when injected, was used for punishment.

The children and young people in the unit were subjected to physical and sexual abuse by staff and other patients.

The commission’s 426-page report also outlined the misuse of solitary confinement, emotional and psychological abuse in the unit, and said the young people were exposed to “unreasonable” medical risks.

Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.