Alayah
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.
‘It was just horrible. I just felt like they didn't want me as a person with a disability. They didn't want me in the workplace.’
Alayah, early 40s, is a school counsellor.
About 10 years ago, symptoms of her fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomyelitis became worse and she found it difficult to spend a full day at work.
She made an informal arrangement with her manager to arrive at work later in the mornings and work from home in the afternoons.
A few years later, the education department raised concerns about the arrangement and asked Alayah to submit ‘evidence’ of her disability. A few years after that, the department suggested she undergo a ‘fitness for duties’ assessment.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alayah’s doctor recommended she work from home because she was more vulnerable to serious illness. At the time, everyone was beginning to work from home and it wasn’t an issue.
As other staff began to return to work, Alayah’s doctor advised her to stay home because of the risk to her health.
Alayah told the Royal Commission her managers ‘were not supportive’. They told her she was ‘an essential worker’ and the ‘only one’ working from home, and they might need to ‘reconsider’ her role.
Shortly after, they moved her to a primary school.
Eventually, Alayah’s doctor cleared her to return to work and she asked to return to her substantive role at the high school.
Human resources asked her to provide more information about her disability and the adjustments she required. Alayah asked to continue to work from home in the afternoon.
The department refused to allow her to return to the high school and limited her role to project-based work at the primary school.
A few weeks later, Alayah’s manager informed her she needed to undergo a psychiatric and rheumatology assessment. Alayah queried the psychiatric assessment because she ‘didn’t have a psychiatric injury and wasn’t claiming to have one’.
Her manager told her that she talks about her pain conditions but ‘we don't know it's a disability’.
Ultimately, Alayah felt she had no choice but to agree to the assessments.
At the beginning of the session, the psychiatrist told Alayah she’d been asked to assess whether Alayah was a ‘risk to children’. She said, ‘We take the safety of children very seriously and so I will be doing a full psychiatric assessment on you starting from childhood to now.’
The psychiatrist asked personal questions about Alayah’s childhood and family. She asked about her medication, relationship status and use of dating websites. Alayah was shocked because no complaints had been made about her performance.
‘I guess going through that, it was the whole thing of just being not believed that I have a disability, and it just wasn't a supportive process. It was like an investigative process. It really was trying to prove I don't have a disability rather than just accepting I do.’
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.