We still need Cctv in group homes to protect our children- attached is sourced article from New York Times - which notes this family only found out their son was being abused in a group home because a concerned support worker caught it on camera only if it is caught on camera will the police or courts listen even here in Australia -our children and adult children are at risk of being harmed wherever they receive care by workers who are usually untrained and have no education in disabilities.
The employee, Mr Phiri who took the video and reported the abuse to supervisors also filed a lawsuit against the residential facility saying he was subjected to baseless retaliatory punitive measures having his apartment keys taken off him termination of his job, also having his immigrant status threatened as he was from Malawi. All kudos to him for standing up to protect the boy and report on the other employee's abuse. Few are willing to stand up for those in disabilities out of fear of that very retaliation.
The mother in this article said their lives changed in an instant the moment the phone rang and they were told what happened to their son they were never the same.
The same happen to me when James was harmed by a worker at a respite house it was a wakeup call to the attitude in the disability system of not caring what happens to our children who are non verbal and so vulnerable they are targets for the bullies only working in disabilities for the money who do not care about our children at all. The providers covering up because they want to keep getting the money and it hearkened back to the says of les miserable treating children and those with disabilities as a commodity but not actually caring about them yet claiming to while hurting them. We must protect our precious ones from harm we need cctv to catch abuse and negligence against our vulnerable ones who cannot defend themselves and cannot tell us what happened to them!
All the best
Anndrea x
Sign my petition for CCTV In disabilities and greater accountability by providers
Change.org/disabilitycameras
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Life With Severe Autism 
June 30 at 6:22 AM ·
Shalini Babbar received an unexpected phone call on a Sunday morning in August 2024 from an employee at a residential home in upstate New York, where her 19-year-old autistic son was living.
The employee at the home, the Anderson Center for Autism, told Ms. Babbar that her son was being abused. The abuse had been going on for some time, she said she was told, and the employee had a video. Ms. Babbar panicked and begged the man for the footage.
The video, taken in June 2024, showed another employee gripping her son’s genitals and dragging him down a hallway from one room to another, in plain view of other staff members and residents. Her son could be heard screaming and calling for his mother, according to a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York.
According to the suit, after leaving Anderson, her son, who is identified in court documents as A.B., was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hospitalized multiple times. His parents have said they have “paid considerable sums of money out of pocket” to care for A.B. since his time at the center and have accused Anderson of assault and battery, negligent supervision and discrimination on the basis of disability.
“His dignity was stolen,” Ms. Babbar said. “He was being physically and sexually abused and my whole world changed in an instant.”
The employee in the video, Garnet Collins, pleaded guilty in 2025 to endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person for abusing A.B. and another resident and was sentenced to one to three years in prison.
A.B.’s parents filed the lawsuit against the Anderson Center, Mr. Collins and a manager at the home. They say in the suit that Anderson’s leadership was aware that Mr. Collins and other staff members “regularly used physical abuse to control A.B. and other Anderson residents because of the nature and severity of their disabilities.” In 2023, officials at the center were notified that another employee had struck A.B. in the eye with a broom handle, the suit said.
Reports of abuse at Anderson date back to at least 2003. That year, Jonathan Carey, a 9-year-old autistic boy, was sent to the home by his parents because they were worried they could no longer care for him. Jonathan began losing weight at Anderson and his parents eventually learned that staff members were punishing him by withholding food and secluding him in his room for extended periods of time. (The boy’s parents settled a lawsuit with Anderson in 2010.)
The family’s lawyer, Ilann Maazel, said A.B.’s experience was “some of the most appalling abuse I’ve seen in over 25 years of practice.” Mr. Maazel also represented Jonathan’s family.
The employee who sent the video to A.B.’s parents, Emmerson Phiri, filed a separate federal lawsuit saying he told supervisors about the abuse he saw at the center. The supervisors retaliated, he said, “subjecting him to baseless disciplinary action, confiscating his apartment keys, threatening his immigration status and ultimately terminating him.” Mr. Phiri is from Malawi.
The abuse of developmentally disabled people extends beyond the Anderson Center, Mr. Babbar said. He and Ms. Babbar have spoken to families with similar concerns, but who often lack evidence. He called the care network for autistic people a “criminal ecosystem against the vulnerable population.”
“But for the whistle-blower’s video of my son, my son may be dead today,” Mr. Babbar said.
My worst nightmare! Our children deserve better!!
Source: New York TimesSee less