Cali
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.
Cali’s father worked as an accountant for a mental health institution in the 1960s. He told her stories of abuses of power committed at the institution.
Cali thought these abuses were a thing of the past, but 50 years later she found herself ‘taken by police … without warning or notification … and locked up for a period of days’.
She told the Royal Commission she was at home one day when ‘police came knocking … in a very aggressive manner’. They told her if she didn’t go with them they would use ‘brute force’ to get her into the car and take her to the hospital.
Cali had been a victim of ‘hundreds of petty thefts’ and was trying to do something about it. She reported each theft to the police.
‘The police got fed up,’ Cali said. She had a fight on the phone with a particular police officer. ‘[It] provoked this officer into taking drastic and unwarranted action against me, to lock me up in a mental health institute for 7 days.’
Cali says she was given no warning. ‘This was a total violation of my rights. I was not a threat to anybody. There was no indication of violence.’ Cali says she is never violent or angry. ‘I am a cool, calm and collected person.’
Cali says ‘being a victim doesn’t make me mentally ill’. She believes the police violated her rights and the assessing psychiatrist and the hospital ‘just wanted to please the police officer’.
Cali said that in hospital, staff took away her electronic devices and withheld medication, causing her pain. She wasn’t allowed dental floss in case she was suicidal. ‘I had to do and say whatever I could to be released as soon as possible.’
When she was released she was distressed to find no-one had cared for her animals. ‘My cat, when I got home was starving.’
Cali would like compulsory notification in writing before a person is ‘taken by force by police to a mental health hospital’. She believes it would give the person the opportunity to seek some help and support.
Cali said she will ‘not be putting in a police report ever again’.
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.