The gap between Labour's soaring rhetoric on mental health and the reality is galling | Oliver Lewis

When it comes to mental health, New Zealand's government has lost sight of what's important

They call it a last resort, but for people placed in seclusion in New Zealand mental health units it can feel like the beginning of a nightmare. Seclusion" itself is something of a euphemism, a gentle name for locking someone in a room for an average of 27 hours at a time. It's meant to be a last resort to stop people from hurting themselves or others, but the practice can itself be traumatising. One woman, recalling her seclusion experience, describes how - even now - she doesn't like the sound of keys being rattled. It reminds her of being locked up, she says, of feeling hopeless, frightened and alone.

Being taken into seclusion is absolutely awful, scary and daunting."