WARNING: This article deals with suicide and may be upsetting.
Waikato District Health Board has today apologised to the family whose loved one took his own life while in the care of a mental healthcare facility four and a half years ago.
Nicky Stevens died in March 2015 after being allowed out of Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital unescorted, against the express direction of his parents.
"It's taken four and a half long years to get to the point of being able to move forwards," Nicky's mother Jane Stevens said.
The DHB has also dropped the complaint to the Solicitor-General about the findings of the Coroner in the inquest into the 21-year-old's death.