Maryanne
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Maryanne is a physiotherapist who recently started a community practice.
‘I see people who have autism that work in community that, say, have a job versus people who are wheelchair-bound, nonverbal. So the spectrum is huge,’ Maryanne told the Royal Commission. ‘Some of those people … their family are very involved, and others might not have family or friends advocating for them.’
Maryanne said some injuries and bad practices are unreported because service providers employ staff who are inexperienced or afraid to speak up. For example, in her first week in the community Maryanne visited a woman with an intellectual disability who uses a wheelchair.
‘She has a speech impairment. It takes a very long time to get information out of her … I was just chatting to her really, and she told me about her sore leg.’
Maryanne discovered the woman fell from her wheelchair a few weeks earlier and her support workers didn’t report it.
‘They picked her up, put her back in her wheelchair and left her.’
Maryanne insisted the woman be taken to hospital, where doctors found she had a broken leg. She said the support workers probably didn’t realise the danger, ‘but they should have reported it for her to be assessed’.
‘You could get a support worker that has a nursing background or you can get somebody that walks in from the street with no disability or no caring background and they are expected to do the same job.’
Maryanne also described a man who had a stroke and was severely depressed because he was placed in a group home with a person who had ‘severe behaviour disturbances’.
‘I arrived to this person's house in the middle of January this year and it was a very hot day, close to 40 degrees … The man’s room had no air-conditioning and the food in the house was locked away.’
Maryanne said the man couldn’t leave his room because of the other person’s violent behaviour.
‘He was actually urinating in a bucket next to his bed … He has a package that they need to shower him every three days, provide him with meals, this, this, this. And my first visit I realised they weren't giving him what he was funded for.’
Maryanne took the man’s complaints to his service provider.
‘They weren't happy that I did that … [They were] refusing to communicate to me and they cut his care. So they punished him for dobbing on them.’
Maryanne said service providers sometimes fire allied health professionals who raise concerns.
‘So then you lose contact with the family. And so that's why these things keep going. And it happens the same if a support worker speaks up or anything.’
She said it means cases of abuse and neglect aren’t reported.
‘I think what is happening quite a lot of the time in the community [is] companies hire quite inexperienced, say, physios … They charge the full rate that they can claim. There's no direct supervision. And they go out. So they are already overwhelmed by just the job itself … Not blaming them. I think it's a lot of the companies [employ inexperienced staff].’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.