Sapphire
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.
‘Ultimately, I can’t receive DSP until I take an antidepressant in Centrelink’s eyes, and that’s not going to happen.’
Sapphire is in their 20s and a few years ago ‘received an official diagnosis of fibromyalgia’.
‘Prior to my physical diagnosis, I had been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder which highlighted a lot of things about, I suppose, my anxieties and depressions and sense of paranoia,’ they told the Royal Commission.
Sapphire got counselling and medical care through a youth service organisation. At one point a hospital psychiatrist gave them an antidepressant.
‘To which I had an extreme allergic reaction … And it was ridiculously scary this experience. And I spoke to him about that and he was understanding and he said that’s a really rare reaction. So I didn’t seek getting a script for that medication at all and I just continued with cognitive behaviour therapy and psychosocial therapies.’
Sapphire found the mental health services and activities at the youth community centre really helped ‘deal’ with their condition.
‘That’s where I was getting a lot of support … And working a lot with their counsellors in – in trying to get the Disability Support Pension [DSP].’
Centrelink said Sapphire didn’t qualify for the DSP.
‘They just fully flat-out denied it at the start. They didn’t think that my illness had even affected me to a point of not being able to work. When I had doctors saying that I couldn’t work a certain capacity … I still wanted to work but it needed to be reduced and a certain kind of work.’
A ‘very understanding’ consultant helped Sapphire get a youth disability supplement, which meant they weren’t ‘really required to look for work’. That lasted about a year.
‘Then all of a sudden I was required to do these things that were previously understood that I couldn’t do.’
Sapphire struggled ‘to meet those mutual obligations’ of a job active status, and ‘to find that support in employment’.
‘I was living on the edge constantly fearing that any Centrelink benefit would be cut off.’
Services Australia says Sapphire lacks the ‘impairment points … for psychological impairment’.
‘They said it’s diagnosed, but not fully treated and stabilised and that was due to me not taking antidepressants.’
Sapphire puts her exclusion from services down to ‘a stigma’.
‘I have an invisible illness.’
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.