Sandi
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Sandi has worked as a disability support worker and team leader for more than 10 years.
Recently she worked in a home with several residents who have acquired brain injuries, cognitive disability and high support needs.
The home is purpose-built, state of the art. The television remote operates not only the television but the temperature, lights, blinds and some doors. The provider charges the residents a premium to live in the high-tech home. But the residents don’t know how to use the system.
‘It was great for all the fat cats to pat each other on the back during media interviews,’ Sandi told the Royal Commission, ‘but the house is so understaffed … They’re in this brand-new house. And they’re just stuck in there doing nothing.’
Sandi was second-in-charge to a ‘dodgy’ team leader.
The team leader coerced residents to buy items for the home.
‘They were things they never asked for and are unable to use.’
Recently one of the residents died.
The team leader had encouraged Sandi to buy furniture and machinery for the outside areas – he used a wheelchair and couldn’t use the items. Sandi said he was ‘very possessive of his things’, telling her he hoped to give them to his sisters and nieces.
Just before his sisters arrived to collect his possessions, the team leader went to his room and unlocked his safe. She removed his moneybox – saying, ‘I’ll be keeping that for the house’ – and all the receipts for the items he had bought.
Sandi asked her to give her the receipts but she refused.
Sandi told his sisters about the items. She then informed the team leader that the resident’s sisters would be taking the items.
‘She became really aggressive and said, “How did they know about them?” And I told her that I told them.’
The team leader organised a memorial for the resident. She collected several hundred dollars, but it never went ahead and she kept the money for herself.
Sandi said residents and staff were scared of the team leader.
The team leader once coerced a resident into putting utilities in his name so the home could get a pensioner discount. She then yelled at him to turn the heating off even though the home was freezing. She threatened him with the bills if he didn’t, telling him she would make him pay.
Sandi also heard her threatening another resident, telling him she would send him to an aged care facility if he didn’t do what he was told.
A resident who had a brain injury lost his inhibitions one day and grabbed the team leader’s arm. She responded by grabbing him by the throat.
When Sandi told the team leader that staff morale was low, she didn’t care. ‘Oh well. If they leave, they leave,’ she said.
Sandi made a formal complaint to the CEO and the NDIS Quality and Safeguard Commission.
About a week later, the general manager stood her down without pay because someone had made a complaint against her.
‘I asked what the complaint was, because in [all my] years I’ve never had a complaint [against the general manager]. So they stalled and stalled.’
In the meeting, Sandi raised her complaint about the team leader but they shut her down.
Six other staff made complaints, but management responded, ‘You’re all in a click together.’
Management moved Sandi to a different home.
She felt she had no other choice but to resign.
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.