Ares
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.
Ares is a transgender man in his late 20s. He is autistic and has bipolar disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). He was diagnosed as ‘bipolar with psychosis’ a number of years ago, but is still struggling to get adequate supports.
Ares blames this on NDIS local area coordinators (LACs), starting with his first.
‘She formed the opinion right when she first started working with me that, like, I was overfunded,’ he told the Royal Commission. ‘I was, like, not as impaired as I seemed to be because I communicate really well over written medium.’
The coordinator told him, 'You don't meet the criteria. You can participate in planning meetings by yourself.’ She asked him why he couldn’t use informal supports.
‘And I was like, “Because I can't use my parents for support. And I don't feel like I have to have my friends needing to be my support workers. Like, I want different support.”’
His support worker and recovery coach were advocating for him to be moved into the complex stream. But Ares said the coordinator repeatedly refused to facilitate this. The coordinator failed to include his more recent diagnoses of autism level 3 and C-PTSD in the plan, so he got no support for those. Ares said she questioned him inappropriately about his trauma.
‘And, so, I made a complaint about her because … I didn't have to tell her.’
The NDIS allocated Ares a new LAC from a community organisation, but they refused to include behaviour therapy needs in his plan despite a report from his psychologist.
‘[They] said that I didn't need like positive behaviour support at all … Like my behaviours of concern are – well, like, when I cut myself, it's not that bad … The third-degree burns, and, like, I do drug use, unsafe sexual behaviour, suicide attempts … How is this not necessary? So I missed out on $25,000 worth of funding and then finally found a place that worked. And it was so expensive, you know, that I'm almost out of funding.’
During a review process, the LAC has been pushing for Ares to be agency-managed instead of plan-managed.
The LGBTQI+ agency Ares uses for several support workers is not a registered provider. He fears he will lose them if he is agency-managed and face more discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse.
‘It's actually triggering me, like having to think about going back to agency providers who have no training in how to, like, support someone like me … The amount of discrimination that I face, and the kind of things that people have said towards me and done to me … It's actually just added onto, like, my existing complex trauma.’
The best outcome Ares hopes for is that he moves up to a complex support needs plan.
‘So that I'm directly with an NDIS planner. I won't be with any LACs anymore.’
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.