Tinsley and Eduardo
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.
Tinsley had cerebral palsy. She was blind and non-verbal. She was in her 50s when she died about a year ago.
‘She was well looked after … from the age of five,’ her uncle Eduardo told the Royal Commission. ‘All that time she was fine while she was in government care. Her difficulty was when the NDIS came along.’
At that point, Tinsley was moved to a supported living residence run by a private accommodation provider in New South Wales.
Eduardo quickly ‘found holes in her care’. The home did not have Tinsley’s health care plan and was not meeting her ‘complex care needs’.
‘The problem was she needed more intensive care from capable people. They didn't know how to look after [her].’
He noticed Tinsley’s health deteriorating. She was ‘self-harming and all that’.
‘That's what was occurring through the whole two years, which was pretty stressful. Going down to meet her and seeing her discomfort, and slowly losing weight.’
He said Tinsley needed ‘familiarity’.
‘Her acute self-harming would occur because people were involved with her that don't know how to look after her. So, her anxiety would grow.’
A hospital worker believed a worker at the home was ‘punching’ Tinsley in the eyes, and informed the provider and Eduardo. ‘For a month she was getting black eyes that she never had before.’
He tried to ‘get answers’ from the service provider. For more than 30 years, he said, staff had kept the family informed. Now, ‘no-one was communicating’.
Eduardo met with the disability service provider’s CEO and found out the provider had never visited the home. The management told him if he wasn’t happy he could ‘go to another service provider’.
Eduardo feels his niece was neglected because of cost cutting measures that made it fail on ‘nursing ratio’ and quality of care. He said it was more interested in helping people with a disability ‘with employment and day programs’.
‘[Tinsley] isn't able to do any of that. She just sits there. They weren't prepared to spend that money. That's what it boils down to. They weren't looking after the ones that are going to cost them money.’
Eduardo complained to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, submitting evidence about Tinsley’s worsening health. The reply he got was, ‘We are not the police … we don't physically go out and investigate.’
‘That's what I had to deal with. They said it was all satisfactory … That's when I realised, they weren’t here to support these people … that was their attitude.’
Eduardo started to ‘scream out’ for help for Tinsley, ‘because [she] couldn't scream out’.
‘If she could have screamed they would have had to take notice. Life is all about communication, so that was her downfall. She just fell through the cracks.’
He feels privatised disability services are getting ‘rubber stamped’ but often ‘don’t meet the standards’.
‘It fails, sadly, for a lot. They can see that no-one is overseeing.’
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.