Wellington, March 25 NZPA - Mental Health Commission chairman Peter McGeorge says a mental hospital is not necessarily the right place to keep people such as an 18-year-old autistic woman with the mental age of 11.

"People with this kind of condition often fall in the gaps ... people with Asperger's (syndrome) are not getting coordinated care the way they should be," he said.

Dr McGeorge was questioned at Parliament's health select committee today by Labour MP Ruth Dyson, who asked whether an expensive mental health unit, Hillmorton Hospital at Christchurch, was the right place for Emma Steenson, arrested by Nelson police after allegedly assaulting her mother last week.

Steenson was held in police cells for several days, until being remanded on bail until April 6 to live at Hillmorton Hospital.

Prime Minister John Key said at the time she shouldn't be in a police cell: "The right place for her is to get that help in a hospital facility," he said.

Dr McGeorge said the issue was one which needed attention, but his commission did not have the necessary oversight to intervene.

"She's likely to have Asperger's, which is a form of adult autism," he said. "People with Asperger's have needed much more in the way of specific services."

The Mental Health Commission could highlight issues such as the need for a greater collaborative approach between agencies such as general practitioners, police, children and young persons, and mental health services.

Ms Dyson's question touched on the brief of the commission, because it was not able to go in and do something about the case, he said.

The commission's role in monitoring mental health institutions was taken from it and left with the Ministry of Health in 2007.

"It's just a position of whether we can take up matters related to that individual case," said Dr McGeorge.

"We're not empowered to deal with the specifics."

A key problem was that mental health services staff would say Asperger's was not their responsibility, even though many victims also had mental health illnesses such as depression or anxiety.

Outside the select committee room, he told NZPA: "We don't actually have places for people with Asperger's syndrome".

According to Nelson's mental health unit, while Steenson had behavioural problems she was not mentally ill, so was not covered by the Mental Health Act.

Nelson Bays police area commander Inspector Brian McGurk said the young woman was a potential threat to herself and to other people, but she had nowhere to go, "so that's why she ended up in our cells".

Autism New Zealand's national operations manager Wendy Duff said the remand to Hillmorton was a good option:

"She's got nowhere else to go, it's better than being in a police cell," she said.

NZPA WGT kca kk nb