Marius and Jardine
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.
Jardine, who is autistic, is a disability support worker.
Jardine told the Royal Commission that she has felt ‘very isolated’ working in the disability sector, and that she ‘didn't have any support’.
She says the low pay and lack of support and training endangers workers and the people they support.
‘Quite often the training isn't there, particularly for high needs, because you'd be aware that most providers now are unregistered and you know technically you don't need to have any qualification, even a first aid certificate, to be put in a high needs situation.’
Jardine said a ‘revolving door’ of support workers abused and neglected one of her clients, Marius.
‘They're recruited because you get your six hours of government grant for recruiting them, so they employ them for the absolute minimum amount of hours and keep that door revolving … There's no quality because the client never gets the same person.’
She said one support worker dropped Marius and broke his legs. Another caused his bladder to burst by mishandling his catheter.
Doctors admitted Marius to hospital where, Jardine said, staff abused her for advocating for him.
‘You feel like the whole system is coming down upon you and that was very much how I felt with [Marius] and his end days when he had his medications removed from him.’
Jardine said at one point a doctor at the hospital tried to pressure her to change Marius’s advanced care directive.
‘That's as possible as me changing your will. It's not my role … and I found that extremely distressing.’
Jardine said Marius was also given a drug ‘to shut him up because he was crying for water’.
She asked doctors to discharge him so his family could better care for him.
‘I was going to make sure he passed away at home with his whole team around him … It was lovely.’
Jardine told the Royal Commission there is ‘systemic incompetence’ in hospitals because they don’t understand disability and won’t communicate with the NDIS.
‘We have a hospital system, not a health care system.’
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.