Remington
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Remington is in his late 60s and has schizophrenia and intellectual disability. A few months ago, he moved into a group home in Sydney and is not happy there.
‘I want to move to somewhere else,’ he told the Royal Commission, ‘I don’t like it very much. They’re mean to me.’
Remington likes being his ‘own boss’ and finds it really hard after 20 years of independent living. Previously he lived in a government housing unit with disability supports.
Staff at the home make him have dinner earlier than usual, and he has a lot less choice. ‘I get very mad because they rush me.’
Remington lives with three others. One man in particular is ‘not very nice’.
‘I don't get on with him. He smokes in the house.’
He misses his mates and his bird, Helen, who ‘got away’.
The home won’t let him have a landline to stay in touch with all the people he misses –he’s a ‘prolific phone caller’. But ‘they don't listen’ to his needs.
Through his housing history, Remington has ‘struggled to balance loneliness with independence’, his advocate told the Royal Commission.
The government housing unit had been Remington’s ‘first home that was his’. He was ‘very fit and agile’ when he was living independently. ‘He used to track all the way around the city to coffee shops and meetings,’ the advocate said.
But his support needs became greater. He ‘was not feeling safe at night’.
‘I was scared of falling,’ said Remington.
‘There are things he very much misses about his unit, but it was also very much not right for him,’ said his advocate.
The lack of independent living choices for people who require overnight support, but ‘don’t have a spinal cord injury or something of that nature’, left Remington with no choice but to move back into a group home.
‘Once he gave up his housing department lease, the notion of getting that back, let alone getting an NDIS plan with overnight supports, is virtually impossible,’ Remington’s advocate said. ‘When your options are a group home or community housing, you don't have the degree of flexibility.’
The only thing that makes Remington happy at his current home are the support workers he brought with him. ‘They take me out every day … I’m able to get around.’ They take him to the shops and the bank, but also to the beach.
One worker has been ‘a really positive influence in his life’ and made him ‘much more confident about going out to new places and trying new things’.
Remington wants the home to understand ‘the right way to do things’ for him, so his life there improves.
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.