Catelyn
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Catelyn’s daughter has a cognitive disability and seizures. Several years ago, Catelyn began working for her daughter’s service provider.
‘I looked after my daughter for 30 years before I decided to get a job,’ Catelyn told the Royal Commission. ‘I was such a happy person … I’m not the same person as what I was before I started working there. I’ve had a lot of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from just being there.’
Catelyn said that when she started working, the company provided little training.
‘We just had to basically watch the other staff member, what they did, and hope for the best.’
She said things haven’t changed.
‘New people come on board to work at the place and they’ve never worked in the disability sector in their life, or with mental health or whatever … And they’d give one worker one hour to train them for that person to do an active overnight [shift] on some high-needs clients, which is wrong.’
The service provider also employed family members and friends who had no qualifications.
‘So if anything’s brought up to the management, like going through the proper complaints process, nothing’s done with them because they’re family and friends.’
Catelyn said she saw a number of incidents and injuries.
‘It wasn’t until [a client] actually fell off the back veranda in their wheelchair that something was done and a ramp was put in. So they waited for somebody to hurt themselves before something was done.’
Catelyn said to save money the service provider ‘cut corners’ and reduced staff ratios.
‘There’s clients that go 10 days without a shower.’
The company also employed just one person to maintain several homes.
‘He hasn’t got all the qualifications to do maintenance on the houses … They don’t get proper professionals in. So there’s, you know, blocked drains. It always smells, the drains. And the toilets get clogged and he temporarily fixes it.’
One day, another support worker ‘inappropriately touched’ her daughter.
‘Management turned around and said, “Well, did she have behaviours? Did she react to the inappropriate touching?” I’m sorry, but she doesn’t have the cognitive ability to understand that it was wrong.’
Catelyn discovered later that management never reported the incident. She had made a complaint to the police, but they told her they ‘were not going to take it any further’.
‘I mean if it was a child – a normal child or a normal adult – that had this sort of stuff happen to them there’d be, you know, the child protection people at the police station. They would have got involved. That wasn’t even done. It was like my daughter wasn’t nobody.’
Catelyn is no longer with the service provider.
‘Just the way that the management treat you is shocking. Like, there’s been so many workers, so many good workers leave there over the last two years that I was there.’
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.