Kerrie

Kerrie, also known as ‘Aunty Kerrie’, is a 75-year-old First Nations woman. She has physical disability and medical conditions and receives supports through My Aged Care.

During COVID-19, Kerrie’s supports were reduced and she couldn’t use all her My Aged Care funds.

During a home visit, Kerrie showed her plan manager her worn-out bed and sofa. She asked if she could use the unspent funds and get ‘a proper bed … something firm but that cushioned [her] prolapse disc’.

The manager sent an occupational therapist (OT) to assess the bed and sofa.

Kerrie told the Royal Commission that the OT asked inappropriate questions, for example, whether her grandchildren would sit on the sofa when they visited.

A short time later the manager contacted Kerrie and ‘tried to talk her into getting an electric bed … and an electric chair with a massager’.

Kerrie said all she wanted was a ‘normal’ bed and sofa.

The manager told her she needed to choose the furniture at a store in town.

Kerrie tried beds and sofas and, in the end, chose a sofa.

Time passed and when the sofa didn’t arrive, Kerrie rang the manager about the delay. The manager told Kerrie her boss from the city would ring her.

‘And I think this is where everything seemed to go wrong,’ Kerrie said.

An hour later the boss called, again asking Kerrie if her grandchildren would be sitting on the sofa. Kerrie told her of course they would. ‘What are they going to think if I tell them I’m the only one that can sit on that settee?’

The woman told Kerrie the department doesn’t like to fund expensive furniture because Kerrie ‘may not be here in six months’. Kerrie became very upset, wondering if the woman knew something she didn’t and asked if she was dying.

The woman didn’t answer, but told Kerrie she wanted her to use the unspent funds on additional services. The woman ‘kept pushing’ her, suggesting someone could help her to shower. Kerrie told her she did not need someone to shower her. The woman told Kerrie she didn’t believe she should have an aged care package.

‘By this time, I was crying,’ said Kerrie.

Kerrie told the woman to ‘stop talking down’ to her and intimidating her. She told her she was being culturally and psychologically inappropriate, as Kerrie is an Elder.

‘I consider myself to be a very strong woman who has overcome many obstacles in my life. And these words, they made me feel like jelly. They took me to places that I’ve spent most of my life trying to get away from, trying to forget.’

After this, Kerrie’s health significantly deteriorated and her GP had to monitor her high blood pressure.

Kerrie made a complaint to My Aged Care. The woman contacted her and apologised, admitting she was ‘out of order’. She told Kerrie the plan manager would go to the furniture store with her.

‘I ended up laying on all the beds again … I just felt that I was disrespected, and I’m strong. And still, the shame of going into that shop all the time, having me laying on things. They’ll think I’ve got dementia there, too.’

Kerrie found a bed that was ‘unbelievable’ and ‘seemed to work for [her] back’. But she is still waiting to hear from the provider about when she will get it.

‘Where we come from, you’re part of the sharing. It tastes sweeter when you share … Now, that young woman … and this one other, too, the manager, they should know. I shouldn’t have to be saying this … I’d say that is culturally inappropriate … And she’s got to be educated.’