Stop the wolves in Disabilities - A system of care that is treating those in disabilities as commodities

I saw the movie “Allelujah” recently about aged care people in a hospital and the staff, thinking it was lighthearted, it turned out to be much heavier and disturbing but true, a comment on the way a health system can use those who are vulnerable as commodities as humans beings without any rights. I found it relevant to what is happening in disabilities making people as less than humans by having a disability or being old or having any kind of problem. Yet no one is perfect so all are equal and should be treated equally with equal care.

     A main character played by the actress from Absolutely fabulous shows a nurse so caring so helpful so busy that everyone thinks she is wonderful and she believes she is the epitome of caring yet she has become under so much pressure for hospital beds that she is killing off the oldiess and most fragile with some milk that contains a lethal amount of morphine and we only catch on about this near the end. There is a doctor who is young and actually does care about the people in the hospital but is shocked to find out what this older nurse is doing. She was under pressure for hospital beds to be emptied so more people can come in she thinks it is perfectly ok to finish off old people. Yet these are people’s parents and people’s family and the nurse has got it wrong or thinks of them as commodities in her sick little mind. Or is it that sick? Are the public conditioning themselves to think only of people in terms of money a capitalist way as the government pushes to value only those who make money – when governments tend to dismiss the value of those who are frail, old, or with disabilities yes even our society think people don’t matter yet they could be the same ones who this could happen to. Do unto others. The head nurse goes to prison for life when found out she has been serial killing the patients – that’s something anyway some justice more than what happens in disabilities. Still it is a movie. Finally the young doctor makes a comment about the NHS in UK how they try so hard how they do actually care for little money they still care for the patients – he finds an old aged man he had cared for in the other hospital now in the pandemic is dying. The movie becomes a comment on how the nurses are trying so hard and they are the ones who truly are love in action in a system that does not pay well or treat them with value – the nurses or the patients .

      I do not want my son to be treated as a commodity to be emptied out of a bed or killed off to make way for others and that should not happen at all. I remember one of the managers at respite where my son was attacked with a hit to the head. She was all caring and sharing she made you her best friend much like the nurse in the movie. All motherly and friendly yet I found her taking $10,000 out of James ndis portal once and told her to put the money back! Which she did and I said you are not allowed to do that – oh she said all sweetness oh I didn’t know that in a high pitched voice of innocence. I wondered how long she had been doing this and to how many other people in their respite house. . Later I observed the same organization had also taken $20,000 from James portal in false contracts I never signed – I went to the police and to NDIS Quality commission and reported it to the fraud department yet never hear a thing back – the Fraud department person there told me the police would be quicker.

    Deviancy with a smile for sure. Another time I was looking at putting James in care in the mountains at a place he had never been before – the head woman/nurse said that two people had died and the NDIS would not pay them money until they get new people in – so plenty of room for James. She too was eager to fill the beds of those who had died. Just like the nurse in the movie. How nice of her to think of the money only. The head woman lost interest when I said I expected progress for James and there were those looking for a cure for my sons condition, fragile x, the researchers all over the world. She told me I could not take him out when I wanted for a weekend that they had control. YOure kidding? She basically wanted someone who they could have until they died. I expected more for my son. I left saying to myself I am not putting my son in a prison at the age of 26! Why would I do that? I called it ‘the house of horrors’ and never went back. To me it was frightening.   

These people are in disabilities providers are merciless, mercenary and lacking in any love or compassion. The manager who stole James funding knew how to act but that was all it was an act. She was a dirty rotten scoundrel who wanted to steal off my son. They let these people run disabilities for the money hungry CEOs of these organizations. Its not about care its just about business. Just like the landlords say with their rentals “it’s a business” not caring how they treat their tenants, so disabilities are pushed as a business and little more.

Well, my son is not a business to be made money out of, but he is my business my loved one, my son, my child to be cared for. We must protect our vulnerable children and adult children from the wolves and not let them think (the providers) they can do anything they like with these precious ones who cannot speak up for themselves or defend themselves from physical assault or abuse or exploitation. We are the.

     If the providers will not police the workers and protect our vulnerable children from them then we parents must police the workers and hold them to account.. If the NDIS will not police the providers and make sure they do the right thing then we must police the providers and hold them to account and if the government will not police the NDIS and hold them to account then we must police the NDIS to do the right thing by the vulnerable and push them to make cameras mandatory in disabilities and penalize or shut down providers who have consistently allowed harm and death to occur to the vulnerable they were meant to care for. NDIS stands as a strong money making system even attacking those who are in it as they favour the providers and encourage them to make profits the main goal. The Royal commission counter this. Stronger laws and a better system of care is needed. Our children at present run the risk of harm, death, and exploitation while no one is put in trouble for it. Because its ok its about the money. Well that is a lie it is about people vulnerable children and adults who need to be protected and cared for properly.

Noted by the Royal Commission on April 3rd 2023 – a girl called ‘Lynette’ not her real name talked about when she was in residential care how the workers would talk in front of her as if she was not there – they would sit on couches during their shifts and talk to each other but not to her. Or they would be with her but never talk to her. She said she felt unsafe and vulnerable while staying in this ‘supported care’ she also noted: 

“They would talk over you. They're dealing with you but they're talking about what they’ve done and what they're gonna do. It’s like you're just a bit of meat.’”

“Staff regularly smoked outside her bedroom, despite Lynette being on an oxygen machine. 

There was no fire evacuation plan for her.

‘If I made a formal complaint about anything, they'd never look into it. Nothing ever got done about it.’

After a few months, the provider told her they didn’t have the staff or the equipment to help her transfer in and out of bed.

‘I was in bed the whole three months. I had not had a shower in three months.”

An animal would be treated better than this. Is this how we will let society continue to treat those in disabilities? It is wrong. Another recent foreign movie call “EO” about a donkey whose separated from the only human that loved him follows the donkey’s journey and this animal cannot speak up or ask for help or find the one who used to love and look after him. He is so alone and vulnerable. He is exploited by the humans and finally it is all too sad.

It is the same for those children in disabilities who cannot speak up who are non verbal and voiceless. They watch on as those around them run their lives and rely on those who trully love them. We parents have to be their voice they are as helpless (not animals but human beings who should be treated with care and valued) as the poor donkey who was so sweet but humans would just exploit and mistreat him in the end. I realize it was a movie which was made by animal activists who wanted us to see the donkey’s point of view and its helplessness. However, there are humans who have the same vulnerability and powerlessness and need to be protected just as much even more. Those in disabilities and particularly the nonverbal.

I do not want that for any children in disabilities or adults and even any animals. We must lift the profile and make society see what is happening in disabilities and the lack of justice available. It might not be you child suffering right now but it could be your adult child that will be treated badly later if we do not make the system better and have laws that protect them.   

      Childcare workers are monitored by cameras and everywhere else except disabilities where the most vulnerable are. The government saves money by not giving justice to those weaker than the rest of society but it is a wrong saving and one that will destroy the lives of many and must not be allowed to continue. We need cameras in disabilities made mandatory, the workers trained for at least two years just like childcare workers, and checked before they work in disabilities - the government must stop disregarding those who have great need and are vulnerable and give them proper providers who do proper care and just treatment valuing those in disabilities not treating them as commodities to be used and made money from. 

     We want better for our children and better from our society than this. The government needs to step up and stop being crooked with the disabilities care they say they will provide yet making profits number one goal nulls and voids that care completely.

sign my petition for cameras in disabilities     

change.org/disabilitycameras

All the best

Anndrea x  

#disabilitylivesmatteroz