Psych Abuse in New Zealand

A group of almost 500 former patients have made claims of abuse in New Zealand's psychatric hospitals during the period from 1940 to 1992. Complaints range from overcrowding and overmedication to physical and sexual violence, and the use of ECT (electro-convulsive therapy or shock treatments) on pregnant women—without medication—as punishment.

—The Timaru Herald, June 29 2007, "Damning report on mental health care," posted on www.peterellis.org.nz/Institutions/Psychiatric/index.htm

Note: It's 2007 —fifteen years since the date of the last complaint in the case—and people are "calling for change." Why do they even have to ask for it?