Intubation of mental health patients reported to Anti-Discrimination Commission

An insider from a Territory mental health facility claims medical staff are using “chemical sedation and coercion” to control vulnerable people.

A whistleblower from a Territory mental health facility claims medical staff are using an “excess of chemical sedation and coercion” to control the behaviours of vulnerable people. Picture: Che Chorley

Several mental health patients who were intubated by Northern Territory health services were reported to the Anti-Discrimination Commission.

Under watchdog and new torture laws, the NT Anti-Discrimination Commission monitors Territory mental health and disability services through the Community Visitor Program.

The CVP annual report revealed there were 858 issues raised in the financial year ending June 30 2022, of which 66 per cent were related to the violation of patient rights or quality of service.

According to the report’s author, former anti-discrimination commissioner Sally Sievers, the concept of “least restrictive practice” underpins the Territory’s Mental Health and Registered Services Act.

“(It) requires that consumers receive the least restrictive care and treatment in the least intrusive environment.” she wrote.

The annual report says the visitor program is continuing to monitor the use of intubation in the context of “least restrictive” care and requirements under the act.

According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data, the Northern Territory’s mental health units rank in the top 10 of all Australian hospitals for the most use of physical restraint, with Alice Springs’ 12-bed unit ranking fifth in the country.

Mechanical restraint and seclusions were used 177 times in the financial year to June 30, 2022, including on two children who were mechanically restrained.

Of those 177 incidents, 148 were seclusions with 83 per cent of those used on Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients.

While the current mental health laws do not require health services to record the use of chemical restraint, including sedation or intubation, staff told this publication it was “widely used”.

Environment, Climate Change and Water Security Minister Lauren Moss. Picture: Contributed

NT Health and Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Minister Lauren Moss were unable to produce data on the number of times chemical sedation was used in 2021-22.

A whistleblower from inside the Territory’s mental health facility said nurses were using an “excess of chemical sedation and coercion” to control the behaviours of vulnerable people.

“A young man was held down by five nurses and sedated because they believed he might become a risk,” they said.

This publication also understands another young man’s arm was injured - broken or dislocated - when a nurse incorrectly attempted to pin him to the ground.

According to publicly reported data there was a decrease in the number of times people were held in isolation while in mental health wards, falling from 248 in 2017-2018 to 148 in 2021-22.

But the whistleblower said it was because more people were being locked in their room, which didn’t technically meet the reporting requirements of “seclusion”.

According to the CVP report, the department continuously fails to meet its legal obligations to hold a patient on involuntary grounds by not submitting the legal documents, known as a form 10, to the Medical Health Review Tribunal tribunal.

Productivity Commission data showed 89 per cent of NT mental health patients were admitted involuntarily in 2021.