Callan and Kelly
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 know parents that aren’t here anymore, but have kids still in care and, you know, I often say a prayer for [the kids] at night because … it’s not right that there’s no-one to advocate on their behalf.’
Kelly’s son Callan is in his 30s. He is autistic and has intellectual disability and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He doesn’t speak.
Kelly’s husband was Callan’s main carer until he died more than a decade ago. After he died, Kelly had to raise all her children alone and couldn’t afford to stop working.
‘My husband was the strength and I was always the sook behind him,’ she told the Royal Commission. ‘And after my husband passed away, I had to find a place for my son – oh, geez, I’m going to get upset straight away. Sorry.’
Kelly put Callan into supported accommodation. He was happy, at first.
One day she saw a support worker assault Callan.
‘A male carer … elbowed my son right in the stomach as he was coming up the hall to say hello to me … I was shocked. I was a bit scared, so I didn’t say anything. I just got my son and just left the house straight away.’
Kelly complained to the group home’s managers, who told her they had moved the worker. She later discovered they had rostered the support worker on a different shift, so he wouldn’t be there when Kelly visited her son.
‘They’d only moved him from one weekend to another because I didn’t come on that weekend. I only came every fortnight because I worked all the other weekends.’
Later, the same worker called Kelly to tell her Callan had vomited in the house and she should take him home.
‘I said, “I can’t”. I said, “I’ve got to get to work”. And he said, “Well, that’s not my problem”. And I thought, “Why am I explaining this to this guy?”’
Callan’s brother brought him home.
‘[Callan] looked like an old man off the street. His pyjamas had a rope around his stomach … the socks that weren’t his and so I said, “He’s never going back there again”.’
Kelly complained and the worker was removed.
Callan appeared happy for several years until a new provider took over the group home.
One night, when Kelly brought him to the group home from hospital, Callan refused to get out of the car.
‘So, the carer came over and grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him to go and said, “Get into your room” … And then because he didn’t want to do it, she slapped him on the head and said get into his room, which he did do. I just left quietly [and] cried all the way home thinking, “Oh my God, why is she treating him like this?”’
Kelly complained, but she ‘felt like nothing was ever done’. Callan became more aggressive and Kelly moved him to a new home, run by a different company.
‘If you ring up and have a complaint, it’s fixed that day and they get back to you. If there’s a problem with the carer, they’re gone straight away. They don’t muck about.’
Kelly said that as she gets older, it’s becoming more difficult to advocate for him.
‘I just don’t have the strength that I had years ago … I think life should be easier for Callan, but he’s never moving again, that’s what I can say.’
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.