Leonna
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.
Leonna is in her 30s and has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
She told the Royal Commission that doctors diagnosed her ME nearly 15 years ago when there was ‘no medical pamphlet … so [she’s] just been discovering what it is’.
‘I would describe life for me like living a tunnel with no light at the end basically. And you just have to keep going because you know that if you stop that's it.’
Since her diagnosis, she’s struggled to find appropriate support. Leonna doesn’t qualify for the Disability Support Pension and only recently received an NDIS package for the physical and mental injuries ME causes.
‘I would collapse, I would faint. I couldn't make it through the shifts … The thing that scars you, that gives you the PTSD is how you're treated by medical people and how you don't have a future and you have no security or stability.’
Leonna said she now struggles to feed and care for herself.
‘I've had the NDIS for a whole year and I have support coordination and I have fought so long to just get jointly recognised with my physical disability and the mental disability.’
The NDIS supports Leonna for a couple of hours a week ‘for transport, medication, doctors' appointments’.
‘I am not entitled to nursing through the NDIS or home care that I need. And I go into hospital and then the hospital people say, “Well it's your disability. It's the disability [provider’s] role to do the follow-up and to do the home care.” And then the disability people will [say] that's the health care people.’
Leonna can’t afford rent and lives with her mother, who is violent.
‘She encourages me to suicide. Earlier in the year she tried to choke me, but I couldn't report it because there was nowhere for me to go.’
She said she still struggles to have her disability treated appropriately.
‘I'm not asking or expecting a solution or a cure or anything like that, but I just want my existence, and other people that have this, [recognised] … There's plenty of scientific evidence and plenty of people have it and it's well-documented. And so I just think that the needless suffering should stop.’
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.