Name Chris Finan
Year of birth 1978
Type of care facility Multiple foster homes; boys’ homes – Hogben School in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Ngati Arohanui Trust in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; psychiatric hospitals – Lake Alice in Rangitīkei, Kingseat Hospital in Karaka, Māngere Hospital in Te Tonga a Tāmaki Makaurau South Auckland; residential care – Wilson Home Trust in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Weymouth Residential Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Ethnicity Māori and Yugoslavian
Whānau background Chris was adopted as a baby. His sister is also adopted. His mother put him into care when he was a young child as she couldn’t cope with his behaviour. He had some contact with his family while he was in care.
Currently Chris has two children. He has a relationship with his parents but can’t talk to them about what happened because they don’t believe him.

I didn’t know my birth mother, and I was adopted when I was 6 months old. When I was about 2 years old, I started hitting family members and throwing things. I couldn’t concentrate and had speech problems at kindergarten and primary school. At some point between 4 and 6 years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD.

Mum couldn’t cope with my challenging behaviour, so she put me into care. I was constantly moved around, and a social worker said they had considered 77 placements for me but couldn’t find anything suitable. Mum didn’t think she had any say in the matter.

When I was around 7 years old, I was admitted to Lake Alice. I was there for two years, and I felt like a number, not a patient. Each day I would just sleep, eat and shit. We had nothing to do. I didn’t go to school or receive any therapy sessions – instead, I was zonked out on drugs. They’d also give me ECT for my behavioural issues, without anaesthetic. I remember being shackled to the bed and the pain of the shocks, feeling like thunder or fireworks. The staff would also restrain me for answering back. Once, I was put in a straitjacket for refusing to do something. I tried to run away and as punishment, they injected something into my leg that was painful and crippling. 

I did complain but I wasn’t believed. I’m disappointed with that.

Between placements or on school holidays, I went to the Ngati Arohanui Trust on Waiheke Island. It was a horrible place, and it wasn’t right for me, but Social Welfare put me there anyway. The other kids were usually young criminals – some were rapists and murderers. It felt like we were doing probation work. The woman in charge was violent and hit me with pots and pans.

Sometimes, I would be placed in foster homes. In 1994, I was placed in one full of youth offenders. The foster father was violent and there’d be a lot of fighting between the kids.

In 1996 I was admitted to Kingseat Hospital. I was told I’d be there for a few weeks, but instead, I stayed for four years. It had people of different ages, some with severe psychiatric issues. It was noisy and scary, and I felt like we were caged hens. Every day I’d sit around doing nothing. I’d just be given drugs, and the dose was increased when my behaviour got worse. The medication was horrible – I couldn’t go into the sun, it made me feel hot and cold, and I couldn’t focus. I got more and more aggressive, and the staff would hold my arms behind my back and throw me on the ground. 

Violence was just normal. The staff would beat up patients or tell patients to beat up other patients. I would be held up against the wall and threatened if I told someone what the staff were doing. Sometimes they’d grab me by the genitals to make me listen or do what they wanted. I also heard about staff having sex with patients, and patients having sex with patients.

I ran away at least four times and was punished by being put in secure and locked up for six weeks. I was also given ECT multiple times as punishment for being violent and disruptive.

I think I was admitted to Māngere Hospital after I was discharged from Kingseat. I was in with a lot of people with intellectual disabilities, and they could be quite violent. The staff were physically abusive – they’d kick, put you in headlocks, grab you by the hair or give you a hiding. I complained many times, but nothing was done.

After the hospital closed, I went to a community house. The staff there were physically abusive and often drunk or on drugs, and sometimes they used patients’ medications. They’d take us to bars or massage parlours and steal client money.

While I was in care, there was never any encouragement to get me out of institutions and into the community. When I self-discharged at 20 years old, I didn't get any support.

The mental impact of my time in care meant I was unstable for 15 years and it took a while to come off the drugs. I used to smoke dope because I was getting flashbacks, but I don’t drink or smoke now, as it was making things worse. I’ve grown out of my violent and aggressive behaviour, and I’ve done some anger management programmes. However, I still have nightmares, and sometimes, when I wake up, I don’t know if I’m dead or alive. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve run out of emotions. I also can’t stay in one place and have moved around 30 times.

I’ve tried to talk to my parents about what happened to me, but they think I’m being dramatic, that it was all fine. I think they’re just in denial.

If you’ve been in a mental health institution, you have to continuously prove yourself. I am discriminated against in my daily life because of my mental health history. Even WINZ treats me differently. They make assessments based on my history rather than who is standing in front of them.

I currently work as a doorman at a bar. I’ve had jobs on and off since I came out of care, but I haven’t been able to hold down a full-time job for a long period of time. I wanted to work with children, but my history in psychiatric care means I can’t. It’s been a real barrier to getting jobs.

Now, I’m just trying to move on. There are too many reviews but not enough people looking at how much we have suffered and how difficult it is to get compensation.[407]

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