111 caller denied ACC help for counselling

A woman who was forced to cower in her garden waiting for police while her husband was being beaten with a crowbar in a brutal home invasion has been refused ACC-funded counselling.

A doctor and a psychologist wrote to ACC on behalf of Te Puke woman Maggie Bentley last month seeking help to get her treatment and support for post traumatic stress disorder they believed she urgently needed.

But on Thursday ACC declined the application.

Her husband, Peter, has been receiving weekly ACC-funded counselling since the attack.

The Bentleys' Te Puke home was invaded by three men armed with a gun, knife and a crowbar on October 23. It was a vicious attack that left Mr Bentley with bleeding to his brain, a cracked skull, cheek bone and knee cap, a broken nose and knife wounds to his elbow and leg.


Mrs Bentley cowered in bushes making her distress 111 call fearing her husband's death as gun shots were fired inside her home.

She has complained that the call-taker lied and prevented her from phoning her neighbours for help.

ACC claims assessor Lucy Crosby said in her letter to Mrs Bentley: "Your claim has been declined because the situation you experienced did not involve physical injury. ACC can only cover mental injury where this is caused by physical injury or sexual assault. Compensation for psychological distress such as you have experienced is not provided for in the legislation governing ACC."

This "infuriates" Mrs Bentley: "If I'd sprained my ankle on the way to the bushes, when I made the 111 call, I could get counselling, but I didn't," she said.

 

Mrs Bentley can't sleep and is constantly paranoid, as is Mr Bentley, who carries a gun around their property at night.

K&A psychiatrists and psychologists trauma specialist Dr Tony Lipanovic said stress from traumatic events normally "cleared up" within six months.

However, if it didn't it could escalate to a mental disorder.

Mrs Bentley plans to enlist the help of an MP and said she was not giving up her fight for ACC-funded counselling.

ACC Minister Ruth Dyson said she was aware of the "gap" in the legislation and said she had discussed it with Justice Minister Phil Goff. Ms Dyson said the issue wouldn't be discussed in the next "six months" but was "certainly on my list of gaps in the system that need addressing", adding it was difficult to decide which agency was best equipped to deal with such claims and what the criteria would be.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY