Rocky and Tripp
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 a dog with a bone, and the bone this time is my little brother, and I would never let it go … I’m going to continue to fight the battle.’
Tripp is Rocky’s big brother. Rocky, late 40s, has an acquired brain injury, vision impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and diabetes.
Rocky lived with his grandmother until she died in the early 2020s. Support workers helped him with day-to-day tasks.
Tripp lives in a different town several hours drive away. About a year ago Tripp couldn’t contact Rocky and asked a friend to do a welfare check. Tripp’s friend found Rocky living in ‘squalor’. Tripp said he would be there as soon as possible and asked the friend to continue to look in on Rocky.
A few days later Rocky fell out of bed. The friend told Tripp the fire services found him face down on the floor. He had had a diabetic attack and had ‘worn the skin off his … knees, his elbows, the bridge of his nose’ trying to get up. A support worker took him to the doctor but didn’t supply ongoing care.
Two days later, Tripp arrived to find Rocky unconscious in a diabetic coma. He was unclean, disorientated, underfed, soaked in urine and covered in faeces. The wounds from the previous fall hadn’t been looked after, were infected and ‘quite graphic’.
Tripp discovered the disability service provider wasn’t accredited and the support workers were from one family. They were charging for five hours of care each day but only providing 15 minutes.
Tripp took Rocky to the local hospital. He asked them to keep him there until he could address the squalor in the home and employ new support workers.
‘That was the start of … the biggest nightmare I’ve ever experienced.’
Rocky was placed in a ‘makeshift psychiatric ward’. One of the social workers told Tripp there was no way Rocky was going back to his home and they would find a group home for him.
Tripp argued he was Rocky’s family and he felt Rocky would be better in his own home. Nursing staff and social workers told Tripp he had no legal authority and they would hold Rocky until a public guardian was appointed.
‘I do resemble your everyday, average pain in the backside motorcycle bikie,’ Tripp told the Royal Commission. ‘That’s why I was treated so horrifically, and so was my brother.’
At the administrative tribunal hearing, Tripp said the hospital made him out to be the ‘the bad guy’. The tribunal split Rocky’s guardianship. They gave Tripp responsibility for medical matters and the public guardian responsibility for accommodation matters.
While Rocky was in hospital he had a stroke and his self-harming increased. When Rocky’s health stabilised Tripp tried everything to get him discharged but the public guardian only listened to the hospital staff.
Tripp said Rocky’s rights as a voluntary patient weren’t respected and nursing staff and social workers ‘detained’ him for more than four months.
Tripp’s wife contacted the brain injury ward of a nearby local hospital. They suggested Tripp go above the nurses, social workers and their supervisors and speak to the hospital management.
‘We were like wild animals when we spoke to them. We were so broken and so shattered. And we said that he’d been unlawfully detained in their hospital for 18 weeks … he was self-harming … we had to get him out.’
The hospital agreed to transfer Rocky to the hospital near Tripp. Here, doctors established he didn’t need to be hospitalised and discharged him.
Rocky is now living with Tripp but wants to go home. Tripp is determined to make this happen.
Meanwhile, they are waiting on the outcome of investigations into the conduct of the hospital staff, the service provider and support workers.
‘This whole process has been horrific.’
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.