Growing up in the 1950s in Porirua, Sidney Neilson was a talented child and a hero to his little sister.
Before being institutionalised, Cherene Neilson-Hornblow described her brother as a "happy kid".
"[He was] really successful at whatever he was doing which was kapa haka or sport or just functioning really well and being a happy kid," she said.
But in his late teens, Sidney experienced psychosis and was admitted to Porirua Hospital.
He suffered abuse there for decades and on Thursday, along with his sister, gave evidence at the Royal Commission.
"Not very nice… Went through hell, eh," Sidney said.
Sidney told the commission how he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) every day for about six months.
"We couldn't even engage with Sidney, he was on another planet," Cherene said.
As well as ECT, he was over-medicated, physically abused and locked in a room by himself for weeks at a time.
Despite being at different institutions across the country, survivors have shared similar stories about how they were often neglected and separated from society.
Dr Olive Webb started training to be a clinical psychologist at Sunnyside Hospital in Christchurch in the 70s and witnessed the horrors of our mental health system.
She said patients were showered in mass and it reminded her of concentration camps.
When patients with mental disabilities stopped being treated as a group and started being treated as individuals who needed stimulation, she saw immediate changes in them.
"I use the expression, you could see the lights coming on, you could see eyes starting to brighten, you could see people starting to notice other people," Dr Webb said.
But Dr Webb warns there are still power imbalances that allow for people in need of support to be out of sight and out of mind.
