Alf
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 do want to live on my own but it's just gonna take a long, long time.’
Alf, early 40s, is autistic and can’t read or write.
For many years he lived with two other men in a house owned by a woman who was their carer.
In the late 2010s she became sick. Workers from a disability service provider moved the men to a caravan park and then a private rental.
Alf told the Royal Commission he wasn’t given any choice about the accommodation or the disability service provider.
‘I would've rather lived on me own,’ he said.
The owner of the house would often turn up unannounced.
Support staff did not respect the residents.
‘It was pretty wrong what they did to me, [and the] two other people.’
There was a lot of arguing and fighting between staff and the other residents.
‘I actually stayed out, stayed in my room because there was conflicts at the place.’
One ‘boiling hot day’, Alf was sitting in the air-conditioned loungeroom when a support worker started arguing with a resident.
They both started ‘blaming [Alf] for stuff that [he] didn’t even do’ and made him go to his non-airconditioned bedroom and stay there all day.
The same support worker wouldn’t allow him to have friends over.
‘My friends [would] come over to the house … and [the support worker] said, “Get your effing friends out of the house because you’re putting everyone at risk of COVID.”’
Staff wouldn’t let Alf’s girlfriend visit and he had to travel to her house to spend time with her.
Staff never took the residents out, not even to the shops.
‘They would do all the shopping and we didn't have a choice.’
Alf spent most of the time in his room watching DVDs. He told staff he wanted to leave the house but they ignored him.
It became so awful he had ‘bad thoughts like committing suicide’.
One day, Alf told staff he had numbness down his left arm and asked them to call an ambulance.
Staff ignored him and did nothing, telling him ‘They won’t take you.’ It turned out Alf was having a heart attack. Eventually, they took him to a GP.
In hospital recovering, Alf made a complaint about the provider.
‘I didn’t want to be there. It was pretty appalling what they were doing.’
A support coordinator helped him change providers and move to a new home.
Alf loves his new home and can have friends over.
Staff are happy for him to have his girlfriend stay over but are waiting on her parents’ permission – she’s in her late 30s.
Alf would like to live with his girlfriend.
‘My girlfriend said as soon as I can get a place she'll move in with me.’
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.