Shawn and Teresa
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.
Teresa is Shawn’s legal guardian. Shawn has a moderate intellectual disability and went into care when he was a toddler. Now in his late 40s, Teresa told the Royal Commission, he has ‘no support, no family and no friends’.
When Teresa met Shawn, he was living in a group home. She says the neglect he experienced there ‘has been awful’.
There were four residents in the group home and ‘often only one support worker’.
One resident was violent and constantly abused Shawn. Teresa says he would kick in Shawn’s door, scream, tell him he hated him and threaten to kill him. Shawn lived with this for three years.
Sometimes, to get him out of the house so they could handle the dangerous resident, staff would tell Shawn, a vulnerable man, ‘to go for a walk around the streets’.
The violent resident also assaulted staff and Teresa discovered they had evacuation plans. On one occasion staff organised to go out the window. ‘But they had no plans to evacuate Shawn,’ Teresa said.
Twice a week staff would send Shawn to the pub with $20. One time a customer at the pub got Shawn drunk and ‘attempted to rape him’. The house staff ‘did nothing’.
Teresa says Shawn complained about his situation ‘to anyone who would stand still and listen’.
One year, Teresa wanted to take Shawn interstate for Christmas, but staff at the home told her ‘he couldn’t leave the state as he was a state ward’.
When Teresa told them she was concerned Shawn might have a prostate problem, staff ‘failed to follow up’. Teresa had to become Shawn’s legal guardian to compel them to act. It turned out Shawn had a severely blocked prostate. His support worker ‘didn’t know what that meant’ and ‘failed to get his medication’.
Eventually Teresa removed Shawn from the house and he lived with her for eight months.
Shawn now lives alone in a granny flat because he is 'too frightened to live in a group home’. Teresa worries that he is lonely.
Teresa reported the situation to the state ombudsman. She wanted a record of the incidences of assault and to find out why Shawn was placed in the home. The ombudsman failed to produce anything and the case was closed.
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.