Bev and Mona

Bev had to give up her job due to the cumulative impacts of an auto-immune disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, depression and other conditions. She now receives funding from the NDIS and seldom leaves her apartment, as her mobility is impaired and she has extreme sensitivity to light.

Bev is too traumatised by her experiences to speak of them, so her support person Mona spoke to the Royal Commission for her.

Bev’s difficulties began with a medical procedure about 15 years ago, which resulted in a series of infections and complications. Doctors put her on successive courses of very strong antibiotics.

Bev had a severe allergic reaction to the medications, with a range of consequences including extreme fatigue and severe weight loss. Medical specialists were not able to diagnose or treat her conditions. She could barely stand, work or look after herself, and in desperation contacted the state government health agency for advice.

The agency sent mental health professionals to visit her. Later the same day, different staff from the agency came to the door and told her she’d been placed under an involuntary treatment order (ITO). They told her to pack her bags and go with them. Bev had no-one to call and didn’t know what her rights were. She did as they told her.

The health agency officers took Bev to the psychiatric unit at a hospital. She didn’t understand why she was there. Eventually she saw a psychiatrist, who said she needed urgent treatment for a life-threatening eating disorder. He told her that if she didn’t consent, he would reinstate the ITO. He wouldn’t answer any of the many questions she had, or let her phone anyone to ask advice.

Staff put Bev in a single room and kept her isolated, constantly monitored by a nurse. During the first month of her stay, several nurses said they weren’t sure if she actually had an eating disorder. They thought she might have some other undiagnosed problem. They saw how much she was eating, yet she continued to lose weight.

They expressed concerns about her treatment to the psychiatrist but he dismissed them.

When he met with Bev, he accused her of acting in some way to keep her weight low. He subjected her to daily tests, including physical searches and physical violation, to measure how much was in her stomach and what she was excreting.

Mona told the Royal Commission that for Bev, these intrusive tests and examinations were like ‘being raped again and again’.

As months passed and Bev didn’t reach her target weight, her treatment became more punitive. Some of the nurses became abusive.

‘[Bev] was made to stand there, practically naked with her pants down on public display while they yelled at her for not being able to go to the toilet,’ Mona said.

They made her strip to stand on the scales and wouldn’t let her see the result.

‘They would simply say, “Oh Dr X is going to be really mad at you, you haven’t put on any weight.” The psychological pressure was horrific,’ Mona said.

They used physical force to medicate her, and on one occasion gave her a drug that was meant for someone else.

‘[Bev] was treated like she had committed a terrible crime – humiliated, degraded, subjected to psychological, emotional and physical torture … She had a genuine medical issue that was receiving the wrong treatment and diagnosis and was being subjected to treatment that was … horrifically abusive, profoundly traumatic.’

Bev was eventually discharged into the care of a psychiatrist in the private health system. She still hadn’t reached her target weight.

‘[Bev] did not have an eating disorder before she was taken from her home and incarcerated for an eating disorder. But she has very severe and dangerous eating disorders now … To this day, she still experiences and relives every moment of those months of treatment … It is extraordinary that she has managed to survive, considering what she’s had to endure.’