No Action On Care Abuse Until Trainees Blew The Whistle

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday May 2, 2007

Adele Horin

IT COMES as no surprise to Mike* and Nina that one in 50 disabled people in government homes have been abused. Their daughter is one of them.

Their daughter, who is blind, deaf and intellectually impaired, was struck on the face, put in a headlock and dragged by her hair while living in a home run by the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care.

The incident came to light after two trainee staff turned whistleblowers. The reports on what they had witnessed on April 10, 2005 at the Metro West Residence, Westmead, prompted a police investigation. In October a nurse and a domestic worker were convicted of assault.

"I have the greatest admiration for the two whistleblowers," Mike said yesterday. "They were young people in their 20s, doing their first or second shift, and they've gone through hell since."

The Herald reported yesterday on a confidential review by the department of all incidents of abuse between 2004 and 2006, including 67 between May 2005 and February 2006. Of the 4300 people in the department's care 15 were physically abused. Five carers were investigated for sexual abuse. The main causes of abuse were the use of casual staff and a lack of supervisors.

Mike said his daughter's case highlighted the difficulty of uncovering the truth about abuse. People with intellectual disabilities were regarded as unreliable witnesses. "It's their word against the carer's." He had complained to the home, and to the Ombudsman, on an earlier occasion when his daughter was "black and blue" on her ribs and upper arm. "We were told it was self-harm."

The second incident did not leave noticeable bruising but their suspicions were aroused when their daughter indicated on a visit home she was scared to go back to the residence, and had been hurt. Mike and Nina complained to the unit manager. "It's only when the whistleblowers came forward the department did anything," Mike said. "It makes you wonder how many assaults never get reported."

The couple acknowledges their daughter, who was 16 at the time of the assault, can be very aggressive. With three other children, they could no longer care for her. A clinician's report for the department indicated she needed one-to-one supervision, and three-to-one if she went into the community.

She never got one-to-one care, her father said. "There's a gap between what the clinicians say is needed, and the resources the department has." Janene Cootes, the acting executive officer of the Intellectual Disabilities Rights Service, said many parents were so dependent on the residences they feared complaining.

The department's director-general, Brendan O'Reilly, said the Government had begun implementing the review's recommendations and had started to train staff to respond to assaults by people in care.

The acting director of the NSW Council of Social Service, Michelle Burrell, said using casual staff did not solve workforce problems. "We have to recognise people need to be paid adequately, and be well-trained, supported, and managed," she said.

*Names have been changed for legal reasons.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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