This paper reports on disparities in seclusion between Māori and non- Māori non-Pacific (nMnP) adults within New Zealand’s inpatient mental health facilities. Anonymised data were analysed from a New Zealand Ministry of Health dataset (PRIMHD) concerning 7,239 inpatient psychiatric admissions and 782 seclusion events for 9 district health boards (DHBs) (servicing 39% of the New Zealand population) from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2010. Of all general adult psychiatric inpatient admissions for Māori, 15.2% included ≥1 seclusion event compared to 9.2% for nMnP admissions (p<0.001). Moreover, Māori male and female admissions to the inpatient unit were significantly more likely to be secluded than nMnP of the same gender. Of Māori male admissions, 16.7% were secluded compared with 10.7% of nMnP (p<0.001); 13.3% of Māori female admissions were secluded versus 7.6% of nMnP (p<0.001). Modelled seclusion event rate ratios for Māori compared to nMnP, sequentially adjusted for demographic and admission factors, revealed that Māori psychiatric inpatients are 39% more likely to experience a seclusion episode than nMnP adults in New Zealand. After fully adjusting for all sociodemographic variables (age, gender and NZDep06) and clinical characteristics (referral pathway, legal status and diagnosis on admission), the higher rate for Māori reduced slightly to 33%.
