Daniel Wills: Report on Oakden mental health facility is a 146-page catalogue of horrors
CHIEF Psychiatrist Aaron Groves’ report on the Oakden mental health facility is a 146-page catalogue of horrors ranging from the apparent theft of patients’ property to overdosing and abuse.
CHIEF Psychiatrist Aaron Groves’ report is a 146-page catalogue of horrors ranging from the apparent theft of patients’ property to overdosing and abuse.
It finds a disgrace of the highest order, the abandonment of society’s most vulnerable, and begs a heartbreaking question: “How?”
Sadly for SA, this is not the first time we have been confronted with the stark reality of an institution established to care for the defenceless that has instead caused unspeakable harm.
The Oakden mental health facility report bears unmistakeable resemblance to a myriad of inquiries into SA’s child protection system, which culminated in last year’s Royal Commission.
Again, a toxic culture of apathy and neglect has been uncovered in which too few people were prepared to step up to take responsibility and too many were complicit in the suffering.
Dr Groves’ uses some of his clearest language in the report when describing this collapse of “collective organisational leadership”. He says simply that “the fish rots from the head”.
“Throughout the review and from almost all we interviewed there was no consistent view of who
was in charge of clinical outcomes in Oakden,” Dr Groves writes.
“The more we asked, the more we heard people say it was someone else.
“The review went around and around hearing that it was someone else who was at fault.”
Another key finding is that even the well-intended staff gave up hope, sensing that any plea for more resources or help would just be ignored. This too, is eerily and depressingly familiar.
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister Leesa Vlahos on Thursday offered an “unconditional apology” for the disgraceful conduct that has been allowed to fester at Oakden for years. But getting an admission of responsibility on the behalf of the government was much harder.
Ms Vlahos talked up her own actions in having called a review since having become a minister last year, adding the “culture of cover-up” at Oakden had helped mask the problem’s magnitude.
Over 15 years, health ministers including John Hill and Jack Snelling as well as Ms Vlahos and others have all had the opportunity and responsibility to be far more curious and demanding.
The Government on Thursday confirmed eight staff have been stood down pending fuller investigations, 21 reported to a national regulator and three matters are now with the police.
These actions may result in individuals being held accountable for their direct actions, but does little to build confidence that fundamental problems of leadership and culture will be mended.
These are things which all come from the head down.
The old-fashioned concept of ministerial responsibility, in which people elected to Parliament and put in charge of portfolios are expected to set standards and be accountable for the performance of public servants in their departments, appears to have been dead and buried in SA.
While a NSW Premier is willing to resign over a forgotten bottle of wine, no politician in SA has ever paid the price for our child protection disaster and none seems willing to over Oakden.
Dr Groves notes only one senior staff member at Oakden was willing to conclude they had failed to do their job properly. “We did not hear anyone else, who might have had a role to play, say that they should have done anything different. This in itself is telling,” he reports.
Indeed it is.