The Committee of Inquiry into Procedures used in Certain Psychiatric Hospitals in Relation to Admission, Discharge or Release on Leave of Certain Classes of Patients, investigated the treatment of patients who had a crossover with the justice system (particularly violent offenders). As a result, a network of regional psychiatric secure units such as Auckland’s Mason Clinic was set up.
The report also called for integrated bicultural services to better meet Māori needs, acknowledging that psychiatric assessments used a western model that did not consider family, culture and spiritual identity.[i]