Kōrero: Mental health services

Despite the anxieties and complaints about conditions for patients in mental hospitals, many people were concerned at the prospect of closing the hospitals and requiring their patients to live in the community. In this 1989 photo, Michael Bruce, a representative of a group supporting Porirua Hospital patients and their families, holds a petition opposing the closure of the hospital. About 2,000 people signed the petition within a few days of the announcement that the hospital would close. In 2021 a much smaller psychiatric facility remained open at Porirua, with about 100 patients.