Dalton and Lyanna
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.
‘I’m fully responsible for him … as his sister. That’s my job for the rest of my life. But it’s not a job, it’s just what you do. So, that’s been quite challenging … because he’s been subjected to a lot of abuse with the services.’
Lyanna, a First Nations woman, raised her brother Dalton since he was a kid. Dalton lives with complex disabilities.
‘He’s very smart and I like that about him because I don’t want him to lose his attitude,’ Lyanna told the Royal Commission. ‘So, while he can’t talk, he can say some really poor words like “bullshit”, “horseshit” or “get out now, arsehole”. I don’t know where he learnt it, but anyway.’
Lyanna said Dalton ‘is a very nice-looking young man, and so people automatically really, really like him’. When he was living at home, ‘everybody was doting on him, so, you know, he really enjoyed that’.
Dalton’s mother died and he now lives in a supported independent living home where, Lyanna said, he ‘sustained some really horrific injuries’.
‘His whole arm … was all black and like a really deep red. I’ve got all the photos and that because that’s the only thing that I can do, to take photos of evidence, otherwise it’s me against the service provider.’
Lyanna believes the service provider is neglecting Dalton.
‘He has no quality of life and some days he’s not even getting out of bed. I have concerns about his safety. He got out of the house and onto the road. He’s got no road sense whatsoever.’
Lyanna said his service provider is understaffed and ‘he’d be better off in prison’.
‘[Dalton] is hard work, right, without a doubt, otherwise he’d live with me. But when he’s in a caring and safe environment, he is, you know, he’s back to his beautiful self, and he doesn’t have to be in fight or flight. And that’s what he is at the moment, in fight or flight because he’s had so many injuries.’
Dalton has also started to wet the bed.
‘Not just that, but to soil himself as well, and again, he had never done that since we toilet trained him. Sometimes he’s just crying, and they’re saying that he’s doing it for attention, but that’s nonsense. It’s an emotion. He can’t control that. He’s sad. He’s really sad and he’s confused.’
Lyanna said the service provider has stopped giving her incident reports.
‘This breaks my heart, I had to stop going to visit [Dalton] because the service provider was claiming that … I’m the problem, it’s not the service provider … I will not apologise for holding them accountable when I go there and he’s severely injured and nobody has let me know, so that then I can get the doctor to come.’
Lyanna said she would like to change service providers, but she doesn’t have guardianship and doesn’t want to jeopardise Dalton’s NDIS support.
‘I don’t want to be continuing to have to prop up a service provider who’s providing no quality of care for him,’ Lyanna told the Royal Commission.
‘The NDIS without a doubt is outstanding, but it’s the service providers that’s bringing it down. I’ve been really lucky with the NDIS, you know, for [Dalton], so I’ve got nothing negative to say about the NDIS. We just need to make sure that people are doing what they’re meant to be doing.’
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.