Aliza
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.
‘Sometimes my disability is good, and sometimes my disability is bad. So, I do struggle a little bit, but in some ways, I’ve tried.’
Aliza is in her 50s. She contracted meningitis as a child and now lives with cognitive disability, physical disability and cerebral palsy.
‘I’m not frightened of the way I am because I know that my disability won’t get better as time goes on,’ Aliza told the Royal Commission, ‘but I don’t let anyone get me down because I know that I can do things that I’ve never done before.’
For example, after contracting meningitis, doctors had to operate on Aliza’s spine and told her she may never walk.
‘I proved everybody wrong. I threw my sticks [away] and I walked on my own.’
As Aliza got older her feet started to turn inwards and she now has difficulty walking.
She used to live with her mum. When she received a small inheritance, she bought her mum a car ‘to help her with appointments and all that sort of thing to get around in’.
After her mum died, Aliza moved into supported housing.
‘It was all right at first when I went there, but it just got a bit too much because I had to try and get to work, plus you had to do some stand up jobs and things, and it just got really, really hard.’
To live in the supported housing, Aliza’s provider told her she had to work in a particular factory that packed products for kitchens and bathrooms.
‘You’re working there, you only get say $10 a week.’
The work also required her to stand, which she couldn’t do for long periods.
The provider of the housing didn’t let her use her bank card unless she had a support worker with her. Aliza was living with her partner at the time and wanted to be more independent.
‘It just got to the point that I’d had enough … I had to do things for him and for myself, and I just thought it was time to move on my own, move into a place where I can just relax a bit.’
Aliza moved to a new provider and now keeps her bank card with her. She feels more independent, even though the public trustee controls her money.
‘They swap people all the time and I get confused … if I want clothes, money for clothes, then I have to ask. [But it’s] better for me to be independent than not be independent.’
Aliza lives in her house with the help of the NDIS and 24-hour support. Her support workers help her shower and take her shopping, to appointments and ‘sometimes … for a drink or something’.
‘They do everything that I need done, and I don’t have to ask them, they’ll just do it … They’re really good to me.’
They also help her cook. Aliza enjoys cooking.
‘At this moment I’m teaching myself cooking pancakes … and I’m also learning how to cook my own vegetables.’
‘I want to say thank you very much for this special meeting,’ Aliza told the Royal Commission. ‘It hurts to know what happens to people with a disability or elderly people, for instance. And then you look and think, well, I’ve got a disability … I think that people with disabilities, like me for instance, and other people, deserve better things.’
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.