Pico and Larissa
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.
Pico, from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, is in his early 40s and lost both his legs in a car accident a few years ago. He also has an acquired brain injury.
‘I have not accept my son’s situation yet,’ his mother Larissa told the Royal Commission. ‘My son was a beautiful tall man. And now to see him is really, really hard.’
Medical staff at the hospital where Pico underwent rehabilitation were abusive to him, Larissa said. Once a nurse was ‘practically on top of him’ when she walked in.
‘When [Pico] saw me and my husband, he said, “Ma, she is slapping me.” She had been slapping my son because he didn’t want her to put his top on. But anyway, she denied that, but I saw the hand mark on my son.’
At a meeting with hospital staff, a neuropsychiatrist told her it was all in Pico’s imagination and put him on tablets ‘to calm him down’. The medication made Pico ‘agitated and aggressive’.
‘It was a very strong medication, which was not really doing what it’s supposed to do. It was no good for him.’
A couple of years later, a doctor suggested a course of hemp oil ‘to wean him off his drugs’. When Larissa informed the service provider, it tried to remove her as guardian for giving her son ‘marijuana oil’.
A report to the tribunal relied on an account from Pico’s neuropsychiatrist who ‘repeated every single word’ of his private conversations with Larissa.
‘Not only wrong, it was humiliating. There were so many little things, you know, that made me look like I am a bad person, a bad mother, a person that cannot be a guardian to my son. It’s been a nightmare …’
A state government agency was providing for all Pico’s care. After the proceedings, it left Pico without support workers for six months, said Larissa.
‘I had to fight … They say to me that they still were paying for the carers, so I don’t know where that money went.’
Larissa met with the provider to ask them.
‘This person stand up and physically pushed me out of the office. “Out. Out.” I went to the ombudsman. I made a complaint … but I never had any satisfaction whatsoever.’
Larissa’s husband was very ill and she wanted to temporarily place Pico in a home. The provider put him in a hotel with two carers who ‘were really unprofessional’.
‘They told me they have plenty experience for autism. A brain injury is not a person with autism.’
The agency moved Pico between seven different hotels.
Pico moved home recently and the agency is still not providing rehabilitation and other supports.
Larissa is building Pico adaptable housing in her backyard. She’s hoping to get him full NDIS support, but for now it just ‘fill gaps’.
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.