Kori
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.
Kori is a disability support worker in her 40s. She migrated to Australia several years ago, after working and training overseas.
'I was very, very lucky in my career,’ Kori told the Royal Commission. ‘I had wonderful people guiding me all the time. And I suppose that’s what encouraged me to go back and not just do my degree, but do my honours degree and then do my masters.’
When she arrived in Australia, Kori found a more ‘clinical approach’ to disability support and a largely untrained workforce. She discovered she was more qualified than most Australians she worked with.
‘You cannot have an uneducated workforce. When you have an uneducated workforce, and this is what we found [overseas, is] abuse is going to happen. Because staff don’t know how to report.’
Kori’s first job was with a disability service that welcomed her because she ‘fixed things and made them look good’.
She managed a team, but was shocked by the abuse she witnessed.
‘What I saw was absolutely dire. Participants were being screamed at, pointed at, I heard one staff turn around and say “If I had my … rings I’d put them on and give them a smack around the face”. This was the type of language that was being used.’
One of her staff members was sacked for reporting abuse. Kori confronted a company manager.
‘I said if this doesn’t stop I can’t stay and she said, “That’s fine.” So they gave me a redundancy package.’
Kori told the Royal Commission she was trained overseas ‘to stop abuse’, but in Australia, the law didn’t protect her for doing that.
‘I got sacked from my last job for reporting up abuse and neglect.’
Kori said she reported a client who threatened to kill themselves. Managers didn’t act and the client died. When Kori made a complaint to a government authority, she was bullied and eventually sacked.
‘It is very, very hard to do your role, because you are working for the agency, but you want to support the participant, and I’ve always had to play a person with two hats … I actually serve the community. That’s my role.’
Kori told the Royal Commission many people in the disability industry are focused on the money.
‘There are a huge amount out there that don’t know what they’re doing and they are not helping families, and they are just taking the money basically, and rorting the system and families are looking distressed, they’re looking broken.’
Kori said the industry needed better trained professionals and more governance, accountability, enforcement and transparency.
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.