The lack of care and justice for the vulnerable... I have to say that the recent tasering in NSW of an old frail woman of 95 years old at an old people’s home is beyond comprehension. There have now been calls for police to have more training - what is that all they can say after a woman is now on her deathbed from being attacked by a weapon at the hand of a policeman? Australia is in the international view for how it has treated an old person reported on in the BBC UK and the New York Times people are aghast. Why would a policeman of 12 years experience taser her twice like that when she was frail and weighed 43 kilograms as the news reports say? Was he afraid of her as she walked slowly forward with the walker – holding a small steak knife they say how could she hurt anyone while pushing a walker. Could they have not restrained her and taken the knife off the woman, not just hit her with electric shocks? Where is the regard or care? People say the police need more training but how much more training do they need after all this time? It is too mild an answer one that does not include accountability.
The police have a lot of power and everything, everything is at their discretion. Of course they need training to work with the vulnerable - but so do the aged care workers (many have no training and no university education yet childcare workers must do two years of tafe or uni) so do the disability workers – yes give them all training because at present they do not know what they are doing most not trained or having any university trained supervisors or medical supervisors in these places.
Its amazing how a death or potential death is treated as unimportant if the person has a disability or a disease like dementia – suddenly it doesn’t matter how cruel and brutally the person was treated or neglected. Why didn’t the workers know what to do with the woman at the aged care home? If someone dies they will say oh the police, the carers the workers need more training. There is also need for accountability by those who do the abuse, neglect, or brutal bullying it is not ok and just to to need training is not the answer.
Those who are weaker and frail, or with disabilities and have less than the rest of society should be treated better not worse, they should not be punished for having something wrong with them, the person who abuses them and abuses trust should be punished. What happened when Ann Marie smith died - in that case the worker was sentenced to five years yet what she had done was worthy of manslaughter – normally a twenty year sentence. Oh but someone had a disability so it doesn’t matter so much she died.
What about the workers who were supposed to be looking after Merna at Afford disabilities and left her in the bath unsupervised so that she drowned alone ? Have they received more training? They should never be allowed to work in disabilities again. Have they been put on a list so that the rest of us do not hire them to work with our children and put our vulnerable ones at risk? – there was no outcry then for more training but no charges either. They walk around freely now able to keep working with the vulnerable.
The support workers are off the hook because Merna had a disability. Too many people get let off the hook of what would normally be called a crime. The police should also not be let off the hook for hurting a frail person weaker than them and failing to actually care about it. The police commissioner not even bothering to look at the camera footage, perhaps afraid of what she might find from the tasering incident? These people at the top in police and in aged care and companies like Afford make or earn big money. They forget and do not care, that they are dealing with breathing living human beings with families and they do what they like. What is going on?
The police do not want to release the footage of the 95 year old woman being hit by the taser by the policeman publicly, as it is too confronting they say, or is it that they will be seen for what they truly are – bullies and thugs who do not care who they hurt with a taser? If they showed the footage there would be a huge public outcry it is just too much. Yet this woman lies dying a mother, grandmother. How could the police do this? The police commissioner says there will be a big investigation, yes sure, it sounds good, but they don’t want to say what really happened or be made fully transparent and accountable for the great wrong that has been done. The police commissioner says she will not look at the body cam footage of the incident yet at the same time said they want to find out what happened! Why not look at the footage then? The person speaking on the ABC news today said all this ‘special investigation’ is largely illusionary.
I find it strange that a woman with dementia so old and frail is tasered for holding a steak knife up and wielding it while hanging on to a walker is seen as so bad they had to be brutal toward her ( an indictment against our law and justice system that has little regard for the vulnerable and weak of body or mind, including those in disabilities).
Yet when my vulnerable disability son was hit to the head and badly hurt by a disability worker who lashed out at him, at a respite house the police refused to question the female worker, they never tasered her – oh no the superintendent we cant question her said she will just lie, if we ask her if she hit your son, she is just a young girl (yep 29 years old) and a big policeman questioning her no we couldn’t do that. They wouldn’t question her they wouldn’t taser her to make her tell the truth. It appears she was more important than my son because he has a disability so she can hit him if she wants to. People make excuses up for the support workers. There is no excuse for hurting someone on purpose or ignoring their care so that they die. Its true the investigations by police are illusionary when it comes to a disability or weaker person, albeit someone with dementia – they are discounted by the police and often society that does not value them.
My son was assaulted again, a year later he was badly punched, repeatedly, to the arm by a worker at a day program the police didn’t even send a car out to question the disability organization – six weeks later, they left it and said oh we have been busy. I went to the police commissioner three times about the lack of investigation by our local police - he said the matter is over. However, it will never be over for me as a mother who cares for her child. I do not want my son to be abused all his life because he has a disability and is nonverbal – why should we put up with that? It is wrong and the justice system needs to stop ignoring those who a vulnerable in this society not protecting them or giving them justice – taking instead the side of the bullies the disability providers and money makers. I do not want my son tasered by mistake by an overeager bully policeman too because my son can never explain his actions, he is not violent he is gentle but that did not stop the bullies hurting him or was the reason they did because they knew he could not tell anyone what had happened.
The police appear to punish the weak and vulnerable and frail and those with disabilities who cannot speak but not the carers who are the ones that often hurt them – the disability workers, or ceos, or providers are never punished they are never tasered or put in prison (like the broken indigenous people often arrested for being drunk when being drunk is not against the law and then put in prison – yet the non-indigenous Australians are not put in prison for being drunk there would be too many people yes the police have all discretion).
The police have all the powers and yet ignore the blight of those with disabilities when they are hurt, exploited, abused, injured and unable to defend themselves. They have all the discretion and do not even have to say why they punish some and defend others they don’t have to it is all up to them, so there is a lot of leeway for doing the wrong thing or whatever they feel like doing or not doing as they wield their power. Yes the police need to be trained but they also need to change their attitude and have some regard and respect for those who are weaker than they are those who need protecting and defending. Why should the police bully those who are weak and frail or have disabilities or ignore them when they have been attacked? Why do they not take the side of those who are being treated wrongly? The way the police think and our society treats those who are frail, weak or have disabilities needs to change. The vulnerable need equal care or extra care instead of being allowed to be attacked or abused with no one flicking an eyelid.
The recent article in the ABC news (19 May 2023 by Richards and Levalle) notes that disabilities people have been getting drugged and have restrictive practices placed on them – and that it has increased every year the last few years https://www.abc.net.au/.../qld-ndis-rise-in.../102356712
The restrictive practices include being put in a room, or being drugged. It is frightening to me that anyone would do that to my non verbal vulnerable son. I said to my daughter recently never let anyone give psychotropic drugs to your brother, say no to the doctor, they don’t care what happens we have to police everything that happens to my son. When doctor suggested some psychotropic drugs just for syringing my son’s ear, I said no. I have two degrees in psychology I know the effects I said you are not putting that in my son. Benzodiaphine is a no, Valium is a no. He is not violent he is gentle we will other ways of helping him. Doctors have no scruples we the parents must protect our children from societal attitudes of disregarding those with disabilities and not giving them equality of care even in medical situations.
Yet it seems to be the attitude of society that even disability providers can do what they like – when these providers do not even have trained medical people within their ranks running the show…they basically have no educated trained in disabilities persons supervising what is happening or advising the CEOs or managers. Its free for all at the expense of the care of the vulnerable ones who suffer lack of proper care and then this drugging can also happen to them as well as in aged care.
People are too quick to drug those who are vulnerable as if it is the cure for everything. They want a quick fix. Providers also want a quick fix for their disabilities people they are meant to be looking after. They put young people support workers in charge of them who have no medical background and expect them to do it all with little support. I have seen it first hand. If they cannot handle a disability person they blame the person and not their lack of education, competence or knowledge of disabilities and yet the money is so easy to make from disabilities. It is so wrong.
In this ABC news article a mother notes that her son was drugged by the provider to be controlled instead of using his medication when he had seizures (ABC News) Mitchell Taylor's epilepsy medication was only for when he had repeated seizures, but his parents suspect it may have been used to control him at his group home.
“Mitchell, now 33, was born with autism and an intellectual disability and later developed epilepsy. He was in and out of group homes for 10 years. His parents, Ros and Graham Taylor, became increasingly concerned when he began begging not to go.” They feel now, they have broken his trust in them for sending him to a place where he was treated badly. It is gut wrenching for the parents.
They said there was so much they did not know that was going on in the group homes. We need cctv cameras to know what is going on with our children wherever they are and we need disability providers to be accountable and to have integrity.
The article further said “Mitchell's parents sent him to the group home with anticonvulsant medication, which the doctor had prescribed to be given only if he had a series of seizures. But on at least two occasions when the Taylors picked up their son from the group home, they claim they were given empty packets of the medication, and their son could barely stand. Graham said the group home could not confirm if he had any seizures but said he had his suspicions his son may have been "drugged" to make it easier for the group home.”
Another parent (ABC News 2023) at the Royal Commission said her son was drugged and kept in a large cage area at a group home and kept running away as often as he could he was so disturbed by it, she said he has been deeply traumatised from the ordeal and shows it in his pictures and art. His mother said his trust for people has been obliterated. This is hell for parents to know this can happen to their disability children and grown children. The mother said her sons running away from the group home was his way of begging for help. Heartbreaking.
Now the NDIS has made it a last resort use in their NDIS Act 2013 to drug or use restrictive practices in disabilities, but it becomes unauthorised when it disregards behavioural plans or rules in the relevant state or territory, a very vague kind of rule, yet the reports of these practices have gone up. Do the providers get punished for doing these things? I doubt it perhaps they should be given psychotropic drugs and left in a caged room. Then they would understand the trauma they are inflicting on other. Would they like it to happen to their children? Even dogs get a better life than this.
The CEO of Inclusion Australia said she fears that many more incidents go unreported and that it has become normalized to use them. Restrictive practices include environmental, chemical, seclusion, physical and mechanical. The most commonly used is chemical restraint. It all sounds like a horror story to me.
The CEO, Catherine McAlpine, notes that “We are concerned that what some service providers or support workers think are trivial restrictive practices are becoming normalized” why would providers and support workers think restrictive practices are trivial? – no common sense or brains I guess - knowing what we know about service providers and support workers having no understanding or education in disabilities then it would be easy for them to think medieval restrictive practices are ok because they are so ignorant they would just do it there is no one stopping them or supervising them. She also said that some support workers might even use restricted practice to control the behaviour of a person with a disability. What bullies are these?
The NDIS needs to step up and bring in supervision and checks in person on all these support workers and service providers who are seriously lacking in any education or medical understanding of they people they are paid to look after. They should not be paid if they are not skilled or trained in their jobs. The government has made it too easy for the despicable wolves that have come into disabilities to operate as ‘providers’ often not even shutting them down when they have harmed those in their disability care. Perhaps they should send in the police to taser the workers that harm and abuse the vulnerable in disabilities care. The bullies need to be punished for a change not the vulnerable person.
Sign my petition for mandatory cctv in all disabilities services : change.org/disabilitycameras
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All the best
Anndrea x
#disabilitylivesmatteroz