Sharney
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.
Sharney is in her late 30s and lives with borderline personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder, trauma and depression.
‘I grew up in a very violent household and I was on the streets at 12 … which is where my personality disorder started creating itself,’ she told the Royal Commission. ‘Child protection … they just sort of wiped their hands. They didn't offer me a home or a family, I just got left. So I literally lived in parks and what-not.’
Through her ‘massive history’ of mental illness, Sharney ‘really struggled with public mental health systems’.
‘They kind of used to put people with personality disorders in the too-hard basket … I have two pages of single-line admissions to hospital to the facilities where I've been put on [treatment] orders and things like that.’
Sharney feels she’s been caught in a cycle.
‘The hospital will put you on certain meds and then, once you get out, your doctor changes it because he doesn't agree with the meds … And then you go off your meds, because you're chopping and changing all the time. Then you end up back to hospital.’
A couple of years ago, Sharney was in ‘a serious domestic violence situation’ and ended up in a car accident.
Sharney said medical staff totally neglected her after labelling her ‘a known drug seeker’.
‘I don't know where they got that from, but that I feel is the reason that they treated me that way … I was left 15 hours not strapped down and given not one single painkiller at all. My family weren’t notified. I was in extreme pain. They ended up giving me mental health pills to sedate me … It's not acceptable.’
Sharney believes her spinal cord injury stems from medical negligence.
‘If I was strapped down and pain managed properly, I might not be disabled for the rest of my life.’
Sharney ‘needed a safe place to go’ because of ongoing domestic violence but every shelter refused her.
‘There were beds available and I just kept getting told no, it's not suitable for my injuries … It’s not acceptable to be shoved aside because of my disability. I needed that help.’
After living in a camper trailer for about three months ‘with no running water, no toilet facilities’, Sharney again wound up in a mental health hospital.
‘I went into a very, very dark place … extremely depressed. I've been suicidal. I've been taken to hospital several times trying to overdose.’
Sharney is now trying to get NDIS support for the ‘mental health stuff’.
‘The NDIS said I definitely qualified, but they didn't give it to me because I was homeless and I didn't have a regular GP. So it got put off for another six to 12 months.’
Sharney feels everyone is ‘passing the buck’. She now has an advocate and caseworker at a mental health charity and is hopeful that ‘things are at last changing’.
‘They're actually doing something outside of hospital for me. It’s teaching me things I should have learnt when I was a teenager … how to socialise and just be a kind of normal person. I've been seeking it my whole life.’
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.