Josey and Simonetta
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.
Josey is in her 40s and has intellectual disability. When she was in her early 20s, she moved into transitional housing for 16 weeks. The idea was for her to learn life skills she would need to live independently.
Driving back home, Simonetta ‘sent up a prayer’ for her daughter. ‘Because up until that time, she tended to slip through the cracks of whatever was available to her, through her schooling, through her trying to find work period of her life.’
When Josey entered the program, she was already ‘very competent’ at cooking, cleaning and shopping, but she ‘needed help with her money’.
On finishing the program, management decided she was ready to move to shared housing with another participant.
Simonetta found them a place a short drive from her home. But within days, Josey left because the girl was going to the swimming centre around the corner and ‘bringing home fellows from there’.
‘So, that was her first experience of a group home,’ Simonetta said.
At the next residence, run by a church provider, there were ‘rats from overflowing rubbish, food and food scraps littering common rooms’.
The organisation moved her to another home they managed.
‘And I objected to her being moved there or anywhere else as I felt she was not receiving enough responsible supervision,’ Simonetta said.
Josey’s bedroom ‘quickly became a potential death trap’ because of her ‘hoarding tendencies’. ‘The floor space was virtually ankle-deep with litter, clothes and belongings.’
The room had just one small window, high up, and the sliding door out to the passage was difficult to open. ‘In case of a fire occurring, I doubt she would have made it out of the room unscathed, if she made it out at all,’ said Simonetta.
Simonetta met with the organisation’s manager to voice her concerns. There was ‘a lot of head nodding’ and ‘talk about looking into issues’, but ‘no action was taken’.
Management kept telling her that Josey is ‘an adult’, and ‘she can make her own decisions’.
‘But she wasn’t making good decisions, and there didn’t seem to be enough interaction with supposedly trained people to help her with her problems … with money, to start with.’
Meanwhile, the ‘unsuitable person’ Josey first shared a house with had ‘come back into the picture’.
‘And she was introducing [her] to males that she had friendships with from her secondary school. The resulting two relationships [Josey] had were sexually, physically, financially and mentally abusive.’
Simonetta said staff knew about the ongoing abuse but ‘never alerted’ her or did anything about it.
‘I learnt later that at least one other male had access to the house and had sexually abused [Josey].’
By the time she found out, police said it was ‘too difficult to follow up’.
Josey returned home to live with her mother. Simonetta says her daughter developed anorexia and depression because of her experiences in group homes.
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.