Syd and Lyndal
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.
Syd, early 40s, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
When he was young, his mum was pressured into placing him in an institution.
‘Mum had a nervous breakdown losing her baby,’ his sister Lyndal told the Royal Commission.
Fifteen years later, the institution closed down and Syd moved into a group home.
‘At first we were so excited and happy, but then he started losing a lot of weight.’
Lyndal discovered one resident was on a low-fat diet and it was cheaper to feed all the residents the same food.
Syd lost 10 kilograms in six months and became dangerously underweight.
In the following years, Syd experienced hundreds of incidents of violence, abuse and neglect.
‘If you're a person in a wheelchair, you could be sharing a house with a person who has high behaviours where they hit, bite, punch, smash things. And [Syd], he cannot move himself … He's 100 per cent vulnerable.’
One resident didn’t like people in wheelchairs and targeted Syd.
‘He had a history of headbutting and biting people. And that's exactly what happened … He’d bite so hard he would pull [Syd] out of his moulded wheelchair seat.’
Lyndal asked staff to separate the men to stop the abuse.
The man’s mother called Syd ‘a bad boy for making the door shut on her son’.
Every time she was in the house she would abuse and belittle Syd.
‘He was so anxious about this gentleman and his family that he just didn't want to leave his room.’
Lyndal fought for him to see a counsellor.
‘He can understand and he can talk, he needed to go through what was going on.’
Over the years, Syd has fallen out of chairs and his bed and broken his nose and hips. Staff have pushed him into doors and broken his leg.
One time, Syd had a gangrenous testicle no-one noticed during showering. He became violently ill and ended up losing the testicle.
Another time, staff gave him medication and immediately put him to bed. A different staff member heard him groaning and gurgling.
‘She saved his life. He was choking.’
When Syd made a complaint, staff would be nasty to him and he ‘had to live in retribution and cop it.’
Lyndal would complain and management would become defensive instead of fixing the problem.
About two years ago, the provider decided to move Syd to another house.
‘He went from this small room, which was about three metres by three metres, into this bedroom that is now five metres by five metres. And he's a got a little garden area. It's a beautiful place.’
But Syd lost all choice and control. Staff told him when to get up, shower and have meals.
‘They came from day programs straight into a shower. Had their dinner by five o'clock. In bed by 5.30. The staff would sit down and relax … It was like an institution again.’
Syd was so unhappy, Lyndal and her sister helped him and the other residents make a complaint.
Syd ‘copped it a lot’ after this. Staff called him names and ‘badmouthed his family’.
Staff sometimes forgot to give Syd his medication, and sometimes gave him someone else’s. He missed iron infusions. They fed him mouldy food. They didn’t follow mealtime protocols and there were a number of choking incidents. One time Syd was badly injured and needed medical attention. Staff left him in bed for hours, in clothes he had urinated and vomited on.
Yet Syd didn’t want to move. So Lyndal and her sister pushed to have staff removed.
‘That would take up to three-to-four months, where [Syd] still had to stay with them after we put in a formal complaint.’
Several staff members have left and things are a little better.
Syd would like to live on his own with staff who focus on him and his needs.
‘What are his options? We don’t feel there are options,’ said Lyndal. ‘We feel this is it.’
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.