Tracyann and Moya
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.
Tracyann is in her 60s and has cerebral palsy and quadriplegia. She’s uses a wheelchair and is non-verbal.
‘[Tracyann] can't speak with her mouth so she speaks with her eyes,’ her sister Moya told the Royal Commission. ‘She's got a fantastic brain. Just can't get it out.’
Until a few years ago, Tracyann lived with her aunt and uncle and Moya would ‘go there to help assist to bath her, shower her, feed her, dress her’. With her aunt and uncle aging, they could no longer care for Tracyann and placed her in a group home.
One day not long after she’d moved in, Moya visited and saw that Tracyann was upset.
‘She kept looking down, which is an indication she wants the toilet so that was the first thing that come to my mind. I said, “Do you need the toilet?” “No.” She can say “No”. And anyway, long story cut short, I felt through her tracksuit pants and she had a nappy on. She doesn't wear nappies.’
Moya said Tracyann began to lose weight because staff didn’t adequately communicate with her about what she liked to eat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the home was understaffed, Moya often visited to help feed and shower her.
‘One time I went in and I could hear her crying, she was in the bathroom and … they're standing there hosing her like they're watering the garden.’
Moya said support staff had strapped Tracyann to a chair with her legs apart.
‘I unclipped her, I picked her up and I've carried her to her bedroom. You know, it's heart-wrenching.’
Moya complained to the service provider but didn’t get a response.
Another time when Moya visited, Tracyann wouldn’t stop crying. So she took her home for the weekend. That night when Moya went to change her she noticed her slacks were wet.
‘I've put her on the bed. I'm not lying, I've got photographs of it … She had a hole in her coccyx back to her bone. It was weeping, all infection coming out of it.’
Moya spent five weeks, guided by her doctor, treating the infection. She complained to the NDIS, which appeared to communicate only with the service provider. It was only when another family filmed a support worker abusing a resident that staff were ‘stood down’.
‘There was a bit more done for [the other resident] because they had evidence where I didn't, I only had word-of-mouth and photos, you know.’
Moya didn’t take Tracyann back to the group home and eventually found another.
‘She's happy at the moment. And if anything's wrong she lets me know because at the moment I go out there twice a week … But she's a lot better off where she is now, thank God.’
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.