Jacki
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 actually had to change my name legally from my birth name because of all the trauma … [I said on the form], “I am a shadow of my former self. I have no identity. I need an identity.”’
Jacki is in her 50s and has spina bifida, post-traumatic stress disorder and a hearing impairment. She uses a wheelchair.
‘Everything started when my mother passed away … before my twelfth birthday,’ Jacki told the Royal Commission.
Jacki’s father placed her in a hostel run by a disability service provider. Not long after, her foot was scalded in the shower.
‘I ended up with a blister. They popped it. They put all these chemicals in it. It was a water burn. It scarred. I have two scars from it. One on my … foot and … from where they took the skin, because they had to skin graft that one.’
Jacki was transferred to another hostel where a resident sexually abused and raped her. She told the principal at her special school.
‘I told him of the abuse … but he said, “I've seen you with your top up, so don't come to me, you slut.”’
One day after school another man raped her. Three months later, during a hospital visit to treat an infection, doctors told her she was pregnant.
‘They told the facility that I was pregnant. The facility then threw me out. I had no family to go to … but the child that I miscarried got thrown down the toilet and I've never recovered after that. It's all haunted me my whole life.’
Jacki eventually married, but divorced her husband a decade ago.
‘I had to leave my first husband and our house … So I've lived a complete and utter shit of a life. Excuse me for saying that word, but I feel like I've lived a shit life.’
Jacki moved into a group home. One day a loose screw on a wheelchair cut her, causing an infection so severe she was in a coma for several days. When she recovered, the hospital transferred Jacki to a nursing home ‘because they couldn’t cope’ with her.
‘I was in my bedroom at [the nursing home] for five years, 24 hours a day in a palliative dementia ward. Because there's no place for disabled people other than that.’
Several years ago, ‘to get out of the nursing home’, Jacki moved into supported disability accommodation (SDA), where she’s living now.
‘The stovetop is broken here so I can't use it. I'm 24 hours in my bed because I have a pressure sore still and … I'm up for one hour. I can make my breakfast, go around the block, get back into bed.’
Jacki said the SDA is short-staffed so she has to lift herself in and out of bed.
‘Please forgive me for being blunt, but … I've had to clean up my own shit.’
Jacki told the Royal Commission she also has an abscess in one tooth and has been waiting months to see a dentist. She fell recently and needs more NDIS supports, but she said her support coordinator hasn’t yet organised them.
She’s also waiting for her service provider to move her into purpose-built accommodation.
‘I'm sick of waiting for year after year.’
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.