Idris and Kalani

When Kalani first met Idris he was sitting on a black leather couch, nursing his right arm and looking down at his feet. He was in his late 40s and looked very frail.

Kalani’s organisation had agreed to provide the necessary support for Idris to learn English. The NDIS support coordinator told Kalani if Idris improved his English he could become more active in the community and improve his mental health. But looking at Idris on the couch, Kalani’s immediate concern was his physical health.

She asked Idris about his arm and he told her he’d been abducted and tortured in his home country. Kalani told the Royal Commission, ‘He had electrodes placed on his head and body and was electrocuted at random times of the day.’ For three months he was beaten daily. They broke his arm when he wouldn’t sign a document renouncing his religion. He eventually escaped and arrived in Australia in the early 2010s.

Idris had several unsuccessful surgeries on his arm – his bones were too brittle to keep the titanium plates in place. He told Kalani he couldn’t drive and felt very weak when he walked. He was waiting for the results of x-rays and blood tests.

Idris and his wife Amir had three children under five – the youngest a few months old.

Amir told Kalani this was the ninth time they’d applied to the NDIS.

Kalani was shocked the NDIS support coordinator hadn’t told her any of this information and that Idris’s NDIS plan only funded 10 hours of support each week.

She immediately contacted the support coordinator and asked for Idris’s occupational therapy and psychology reports. The support coordinator told her there were no reports. She asked the NDIS to fund more hours but they refused. Kalani contacted Idris’s GP but they were always too busy to talk to her.

Kalani’s boss was supportive. He told her, ‘Another one has fallen through the cracks. Let’s do what we can for this family … Lucky you have a background in nursing.’

From that moment, Kalani said, she was ‘swallowed into a "cyclone of sorrow".

‘All I could do, was stand in the eye-of-the-storm and keep following all protocols, call NDIS … document everything, keep all emails, keep all receipts and keep on working.’

Two weeks after Idris and Kalani’s first meeting, Idris collapsed at home. After a series of tests he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in his lungs, bones, brain, liver, adrenals and abdomen. Doctors couldn’t operate because Idris was too weak. Amir was inconsolable.

Idris was transferred to the oncology ward but his children were not allowed to visit because of COVID-19. After a month, Kalani helped Amir arrange at-home palliative care. She also found a psychologist for Amir. A community organisation provided day-time nursing care and Kalani organised an interpreter to help them.

A week after Idris came home, Amir rang Kalani late one night, crying, asking her to come to the home. Idris was very weak and his breathing was shallow. Kalani suggested he would be more comfortable in hospital. Amir lay beside him for a few hours and then asked Kalani to call the ambulance.

Idris died two days later.

‘As soon as we reported that our … client has passed away all funding was ceased. His wife did not receive a widow’s pension and her carer payments were ceased from Centrelink. She has three children and bills to pay – all her life savings were spent on her husband’s funeral costs.’

Amir was deeply depressed. Kalani and her boss made an application to the NDIS for Amir but were told ‘depression due to mourning was not a disability’.

They decided to support the family with their own money. Kalani paid some of Amir’s bills and organised support for the children. Her boss covered Amir’s rent for year ‘so she would not be homeless’.

‘I feel the system failed our client. I feel the system failed and abandoned his wife, which in turn affected his children.’

Kalani will never forget this gentle and quiet family. It troubles her they fell through the cracks when they finally thought they were safe.

‘How could this man be refused by NDIS eight times in the past – he was a refugee seeking asylum and a torture victim? Where was the documentation of his arrival? Why didn't the local doctor conduct the series of tests earlier as per refugee protocol? I felt that this client was just too complicated and all the system wanted was the paperwork.’