Jasper and Patton
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.
Jasper is a support worker. He wrote to the Royal Commission about endemic failures of care and support at the centre he works at, and how these failures impact the clients and staff.
Jasper said the centre regularly undercuts support workers’ wages, fails to fulfil contractual pay rates and often puts the health of residents at risk.
Jasper told us about one client, Patton, who lived in a house with three other residents.
One of Patton’s behaviours was to play with his faeces and track them around the house, on light switches, door handles, whatever he touched. Jasper said this regularly made staff and the other residents ill.
‘House staff did everything they could to try and work with Patton to no longer do such things but nothing changed,’ Jasper said.
The three residents were ‘not able to advocate for themselves or accurately describe their living conditions to their families’ and Jasper said management made no attempt to remove Patton from an environment where his habits were making others ill. ‘Instead it was regularly covered up so the families of his housemates would not see.’
Jasper says his employer is ‘not a company who look out for their workers and cannot be trusted to do the right thing’.
‘Decisions are frequently made that are easy, even if it leads to [resident] neglect or damaging staff's lives … I suspect there is so much about this company that is wrong [that] people need to either lose their jobs or the company lose their licence.’
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.