Peter
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 know this is still happening to other families … it’s too late for us, we just have to hope and pray that our children make it and do not commit suicide … it’s a fear that I live with every day of my life.’
Peter told the Royal Commission about the damage and trauma caused to his children by a range of government departments and services, including education, child protection and the intervention therapy they deployed. Peter knows the harm caused was unintentional, but feels it could have been avoided.
‘They did not listen to us parents,’ he said. ‘I trusted them as I thought that they knew what they were doing, but they were totally wrong.’
Peter told us his family is ‘not a normal family’. Depression, anxiety and other mental health issues were a big problem, but he and his wife always tried their best as parents. They did lots of counselling with the kids, who he describes as ‘highly intelligent’. In primary school they were doing really well.
The problem began when the kids started at a new school: they didn’t want to go. The department of education got involved, implementing a licensed, home-based intervention therapy supposed to help families with children experiencing severe behavioural disorders.
They told Peter and his wife they must drag their kids to school. They were threatened with a fine of $1000 per child for each day the child did not turn up.
‘The more we dragged them to school the more they rebelled … my children became aggressive and violent,’ Peter told us. ‘So we became the psycho family.’
The therapy service told Peter and his wife to call the police when the kids didn’t want to go to school. They had many meetings with the police department.
Then, one day, Peter came home from work to find out his son had been sent to a juvenile remand centre. He was very angry, but ‘they told me it was for the best’.
But it wasn’t, Peter is adamant. ‘Dragging a child to school is wrong, calling the police is wrong, sending the child to [a juvenile remand centre] is wrong.’ When Peter went to the local child protection office and begged for help, he was turned away. When Peter and his wife went to court to get a judge to force child protection to help them, the organisation told the judge that it was not willing to.
‘I wanted [child protection] to place my sons in foster care so we could work better with them. They totally ignored all my suggestions and forced us to follow a process that has destroyed their lives.’
Later, when Peter’s son was in his 20s, he was diagnosed with autism. ‘My other son,’ Peter says, ‘I’m not sure what his diagnoses is, but he also has problems’.
‘My son is still suffering from mental health issues and no-one is helping him … they have placed him on the pension and abandoned him.’
One of Peter’s sons is now getting help with NDIS.
‘My other child is not getting any help because he’s been let down by the system so many times he does not trust the new system.’
‘Luckily,’ says Peter, ‘with my youngest son, due to the problems I had with my other two children I was able to do things differently, and he has done extremely well.
‘Unfortunately, I believe that there are many organisations out there that are still following the same processes and destroying more lives.’
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.