No disability vulnerable person is protected at this present time from physical attacks assaults or abuse by others - including from the workers and no one is ever punished or penalized for hurting the disability persons...because it cannot be proven without camersas. Police will rarely do full investigation and leave it to the 'carer' provider organizations to fix things up which they will be more likely to cover up than punish anyone.
What is not seen or recorded is left unpunished, and the workers are unpenalised, and assaults occurring to a vulnerable non-verbal person who cannot report them will not be dealt with. Bullies win again in the disability sector,
Unless we change things now our vulnerable children/family member is allowed to be hurt and no repercussions occur to those that hurt themThere is no regulation of the Respite places, day programmes or accommodation used by disability persons.
The NDIS Minister has stated that the reason for the NDIS quality commission is to 'report all such incidents, effectively manage incidents and support people with disability to assure their safety' (The Guardian 2020, Gomes)
However, the NDIS commission 'managing of incidents' means they do not investigate and they help smooth things over and do very little to follow up or punish the person who has done the assaulting if it is a worker, because they are not there to investigate - just to report and 'talk' about it and set 'protocols' that have been already instigated ie. do not hurt your disabiity clients you are meant to be looking after, report any incidents such as violence to a client by a worker or other client. Managing is then, similar to damage control and is of no use to the injured party who will be often traumatized from being hurt. The injured party being usually the disability vulnerable person who cannot talk about it. The attacker is let off scott free.
By not having cameras for evidence, police will not investigate fully or dealt with the offender. By not having a regulated industry there are no laws in place to penalise an institution for allowing injuries and abuse to occur to a disability person by a worker.
This needs to change now.
At the recent Fireys fund raiser for the terrible firies in NSW and South Australia victims concert, one of the comperes said "We must help each other, the government won’t help us - we help us!"
Why do we have a government if they do not help their people? Why are they not helping our most vulnerable in society, those with disabilities to be protected? Why do they not already have cameras in place? Why do they not have penalties and punishments for the disability organizations they are pouring money into through the NDIS so that our vulnerable children are protected? It should be mandatory for any provider being paid by the NDIS to have cameras in their main lounges and places of care or they are not eligible for that money they demand off parents.
Adding insult to injury we are paying them to do what they like with our children. Often paying too much and exploited by those organizations. I myself have had to report three organizations to the fraud squad for taking my son's money wrongly and overcharging and lying about it. Not only are our children unprotected from physical harm they are being exploited monetarily.
Enough already. Our vulnerable ones are like lambs among the wolves when they go into care, or day programs, when they cannot talk or defend themselves from those who would hurt them and it is hidden without cameras to reveal the truth. This situation of lack of protections needs to be addressed now and proper protections put in place.
Last year between July and September the NDIS Commission said it had received 8,595 reports of serious incidents - yet how many were not just reported but punished for allowing it (organization)? How many workers were punished for hurting (disability workers) disability vulnerable persons? I have not heard of any. Maybe none were ever punished. There is no deterrence happening here.
Figures from the 2018-2019 financial year by the NDIS commission showed 4,537 reports of serious incident that was in New South Wales and South Australia alone. 1,236 reports of alleged abuse and neglect ( including physical, verbal or financial abuse) and 437 reports of known serious injury (including accidents). It is accepted, it is washed over, it is treated as accidents when it is an assault, it is hidden and not one person is punished. It is seen as normal!
Our vulnerable young or old children enter the world of disabilities care with the possibility of being hurt - they are unprotected and are defenceless. We as parents have to way of protecting them provided to us.
Stuart Robert, the NDIS Minister, needs to step up and make laws for cameras and penalties for those who hurt these vulnerable ones. Managing incidents are not enough - there should be serious penalties and repercussions for any disability organization should an incident occur. Otherwise it is all just talk and no protection is there at all. You have left our most vulnerable without care at all...because no one is guarding them from attack.
Anndrea Wheatley (Mother and resilience Psychologist)