Gregg and Antoinette
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.
Gregg is a First Nations primary school student who has an intellectual disability and global developmental delay. Antoinette is his foster mum.
‘I'm trying to facilitate a lot of his world so he can be independent,’ Antoinette told the Royal Commission. ‘He makes you smile so he's a good kid.’
Antoinette is a disability support worker who decided to foster Gregg several years ago when she learnt his carer was dying.
‘You form a relationship with the person you look after or the client that employs you.’
A few years ago, despite the recommendations of Gregg’s support team, the NDIA cut his funding.
‘I would break down and cry because I'm a single mum on my own so I didn't have any support from my parents. And I understand it's not about my support or anything like that, but then you know I could see my son missing out on things.’
Antoinette said she has had to take over the work of his physiotherapist so Gregg ‘doesn’t go backwards’.
‘Then we've got OT [occupational therapist] where we're looking at his fine motor skills. So you know we're trying to relay this to the NDIS … we had to like call them up and go, “Hey look what's happening? What … evidence do you need in order for you to understand what's happening with [Gregg]?”’
She said the NDIA ignored Gregg’s support team.
‘I'm coordinating with people so I am understanding what's happening. I'm a professional … I'm going over the [NDIS] website trying to understand … and we're trying to get the point, “What do you want?” Not in a bad way, just more like, “What's the evidence that you require?”’
One day Antoinette called to question a 50 per cent cut in his funding for support workers. An NDIS representative told her, ‘We're not here for you.’
‘Even though I was still very emotional I learnt not to talk. And when they did ask me a question, I kept it minimal. Because I was trying to relate to them how it's unfair that he gets to miss out on things.’
Gregg has trouble walking. When Antoinette applied for a device to support his leg, no-one could tell Antoinette how long approval would take.
‘I just said to them, “Look I'm not understanding your process here … I'm calling you every week. My coordinator is calling you. What can I do? What's the next step? If you're telling me there's a waiting period, great, I can work with that. But you're telling me it has escalated and to call back next week. I've been doing this a couple of months.”’
Several months later, someone called to say the funding was approved.
‘I didn't want to rock any boat. I didn't want to say how frustrating the process was. I was just like, “Yep that's okay.”’
Antoinette said Gregg would also benefit from more contact with his First Nations community, but the NDIS has been ‘silent on that’.
‘They don't understand complexity.’
Antoinette said that after ‘fighting’ with the NDIA for several years, Gregg now has an appropriate funding plan. She worries about people with disability who self-manage their NDIS plans.
‘I did work with a client that had suffered a head injury … I said to him, “Mate you can't remember things and even for me it's a lot, the budgeting aspect of it,”’ Antoinette told the Royal Commission. ‘I have a caseworker and a coordinator and they're all fighting for my son, you know, and then the people that I work with don't have that.’
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.