Experiences within the disability service industry | External submission

Submission

No 135

INQUIRY INTO SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM

DISORDER

Name: Anne Mallia

Date Received: 29 April 2016

Submission S135 Received 29/04/2016

Family and Community Development Committee

SUBMISSION INTO SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER ON BEHALF OF

MATTHEW MALLIA

I am greatly appreciative for the opportunity to share with the inquiry, the story of my son’s harrowing experiences within the disability service industry.

As with most parents, I only want my son to live a happy and safe life. A life with purpose and dignity, not necessarily and extraordinary life but just an ordinary dignified life.

I am hoping that by sharing my son’s experiences and our heartache that we can in some small way help to bring about changes that will assist in the protection people with Autism and their families

EDUCATION

Our experience within the education sector has not been a good one. I believe education for children with ASD is totally inadequate, children at Special Schools or Special Developmental Schools are being babysat instead of educated for the most part. I know this first hand as I have held the position of School Council President for about twelve years in the Special School System. Children with ASD are not given a choice as to witch school they may attend, they must attend the closes school to their home. The other area of concern with education is the abuse that takes place and is covered up, I will speak more about this later in the document.

MEDICAL

When it comes to medical intervention for people with ASD, we, as a nation should be ashamed of ourselves. The perception and therefor treatment of people with ASD in most cases is nothing short of disgraseful. For the most part, our experiences with the medical profession and front line services have been nothing short of harrowing. I will discuss this in more detail later in this document.

HOUSING

In terms of appropriate housing for people with ASD, I have not yet found a model that puts the care and wellbeing of the client at the forefront. Most models are designed to accommodate the masses and not to meet the individual needs of the clients with ASD. Abuse of various types is rife throughout the housing sector and to my astonishment no one seems to care enough to take action. It appears that if the victim has ASD, then everything is swept under the carpet and hidden. This is the same story that I have seen firsthand and have been told over and over. The current legislation that is in place to protect the most venerable people in our society, is not working. The system as it stands is not just flawed but

broken.  It does not provide any real support for families.  It does not provide any avenues for families to

seek resolution or justice for the damage done to our precious family members. It by no means provides adequate housing options where families have or can play an active role in the lives of their loved ones. It is very obvious that there is no mechanism to hold people in authority accountable for their actions. There does not seem to be punishments for perpetrators of abuse. This needs to change. We need to eliminate the abuse that seems to be endemic through and across all services.

The changes need to start with attitudes towards people with disability, they are valuable members of our society, they deserve to be supported and cared for with dignity, they do have feelings just like the rest of us. They love, hurt, laugh and grieve, and they need to be supported with compassion.

Perpetrators and people who abuse are not only workers in the industry but can in some cases be the clients of services they access, as my son found out. There are currently no provisions or inadequate provisions to deal with these situation, and this needs to be addresses urgently.

I am sure my family’ experiences are not isolated, I hear the same stories over and over and over again, the only things that change are the names of the victims and the service providers.

My boy Matthew was a happy, bright young boy who attended a Special Developmental School due to his diagnosis of Autism. Matthew is nonverbal but is quite smart and has a high level of comprehension. Mathew loves food, the Collingwood Football Club and his family and his dog (in that order). He loves his mum, dad and little sister and is very affectionate towards us.

Matthew’s story begins at school when several years ago his behaviour began to change and we were seeing violent behaviour previously unseen. We were unable to explain this and were told it was part of the Autism. We subsequently found out that over a two year period whilst at school, Matthew was being physically, verbally and mentally abused by his teacher. I was revealed to me that his teacher would also assault Matthew’s class mates in front of Matthew and he would try to defend his disabled friends. This was the start of Matthew’s BOC’s.

As we were not made aware of this abuse for a very long time we were not able to provide treatment or comfort Matthew and his frustration and BOC grew. We were forced to try a number of different medications which only made things worse. The medical profession kept throwing more and more meds at Matthew and not really knowing what would happen when they would add another to the mix.

We reached a point where we needed help and we presented and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

As we were informed, they were not set up to help children “like” Matthew he was held down by two security guards and taken up to the psychiatric ward. Remember Matthew is a 15 year old child with Autism as was not hurting anyone.

He was place in isolation with two male security guards in his room 24 – 7. He was kept there for months. He was not to have any toys, games, books etc. His meals were brought into him on a tray with two snacks per day. He was forced to eat all meals whilst sitting on the floor with the tray on a foam stool. He sat on foam furniture as did we. He was not permitted to go outside into the fresh air or sunshine. My little boy was a prisoner. The hospital is just not equipped to deal with children with Autism and nor are the staff. Our rights as parents were stripped just because he was placed in an inappropriate ward. We were forced to leave him alone at night in a locked room with no windows and no light. This was torture for both my son and us. Remembering he had two grown men who were strangers standing outside his door with full access to him at any time and no one else around. During his time in this ward we constantly alerted the staff and management that the bathroom door was a very real hazard for Matthew as it did not have a handle and was closing too quickly for Matthew to be able to get his little hands out of the was quickly and that poises a real danger for him. Our repeated pleads fell on deaf ears and we were branded and wingers and nothing was done. Shortly after while I left Mathew’s room to go to the bathroom and my husband was getting a coffee we heard and

emergency Call going out over the loud speaker for assistance in Matthew’s area. We both ran back and we were told we could not go in and see our son. They would not tell us what had happened but we could see that there were ten people holding our son down on the floor. We could hear his screams of

pain but no one would let us in. | fell to my knees in front iii and begged for her to let me

see my son so | could hold him and help comfort him. She said “no, it’s my call and | say no”. This

woman’s behaviour can only be described as sadistic.

Matthew’s screams of pain continued while my husband pleaded with security guards to tell him what was wrong with his son. One guard dropped to the ground crying and told me that Matthew has severed two fingers on the bathroom door and they were hanging by a thread. A scream came out of

my body as | asked when how long ago did they give him some pain killers. | was told that they tried to

offer some to him but he would not take them. | yelled you know he can’t take tablets he has Autism,

and hearing Matthew’s cry’s of pain again | rushed passed the staff and the guard and tried to force the

door open but | was not allowed in. At this point | knew | had to get help so somehow | ran through the

hospital and managed to find the Hospital Director. | took him to where my boy was, still being held

down by ten adults (he was 15 years old). By this time many hours had passed and | still was unable to

be with my son. When the Director saw Matthew in agony on the floor in a pool of blood he screamed

a i to open the doors and let me in and told her to call of i and as | fell to the ground

and scooped my boy up in my arms i charged in and tried to have me physically removed. The security guards refused to move me and at the same time Matthew’s DHS case manager arrived. He was in tears as he called his bosses. Matthew was left without pain relief until my husband convinced a nurse to get him some liquid pain meds and he had to slowly give it to Matthew as he moaned and screamed in pain still on the floor with his fingers laying on the floor only partially attached. We called Matthew’s pediatrician and she came straight down and could not believe what she saw. She quickly organized for Matthew to be rushed into surgery in order to try and save his fingers, but we were told that it did not look good as they were almost totally cut off and because Matthew had not received any medical treatment for such a long time they may not be able to safe his fingers.

If this was not bad enough, DHS used this incident to try and have us sign over our rights as parents to DHS. They were wanting us to relinquish Matthew to DHS. We had been trying to negotiate a better

placement for Matthew than where he was. DHS wanted him to go to a DHS house which | fought,

stating that the setting they selected was inappropriate as all the current clients were older men and Matthew was a 15 year old young child. We only managed to avoid this with the support from YDAS.

DHS kept presenting us with documents trying to have us sign them by using other words instead of relinquishment. They were telling us that it would be easier on us if we allowed them to look after

Matthew, that we would still be able to see him etc. They were relentless but | kept saying “NO he is

my son and | will never give him up, | am his only advocate, his voice”. What they were doing was

unbelievable and they even threatened to take over Matthew without our approval so it would be smart if we just played nice and just signed the documents.

DHS Senior Management formed a panel consisting of numerous Senior Management from DHS and each took turns at us, trying to have us relinquish our son. They acted in a way that can only be described as bullying and in a morally reprehensive manner, showing no real regard for Matthew’s best

interest only acting for their own expediency. It was at this point | contacted and met with the hospital

Director, Medical Ombudsman, the Disability Ombudsman and the media and organized a meeting the

next day. DHS backed down that day. I was now free to be by my son’s bed side and care for him instead of having to fight DHS and the hospital. All this took its toll on my health and I was found on the floor of the kitchen next to Matthew’s room. I was rushed to an adult hospital but I refused to stay away from Matthew and discharged myself as soon as I was able. DHS have a lot to answer for.

(This year alone I have been diagnosed with cancer twice, had two lots of major surgery and a huge dose of radiation).

Matthew’s wellbeing was never considered at the hospital nor by DHS, it was always about what was easier for them, never about the child with a disability that they were being paid to care for. It took many weeks for Matthew to recover physically. My family and I have not yet recovered from the trauma we went through at the hands of the Royal Children’s Hospital and DHS Western Region, and quite honestly I don’t ever think we will every recover from it. As for my son, how can he ever trust anyone from the medical profession or anyone in authority again. He was not given any counselling even when we asked for it we were told by DHS that he won’t understand even if we provided it. We provided it privately but the emotional scares are still evident. All I can do when he shows me his fingers in to hold him close, kiss his hand and tell him I am so proud of how brave he was and still is and tell him how much he is loved.

Matthew is now a resident at a privately run residential service called Autism Plus in and has been for almost three years now due to his BOC. Matthew and our entire family have experienced abuse of one sort or another on almost a daily basis. We are reasonably inteligent professional people and do not expect anything unreasonable and have never asked for anything that Matthew is not paying for or entitled to. These are just a few examples of what Matthew and I and his family face each day.

Matthew would constantly be sent swimming when he had ear infections causing pain and repeated illness. Lack of duty of care.
Matthew body would be covered in scratches, bruises, carpet burn along his arm and legs, bumps on his head and the list goes on. Surprise, surprise no one knows how they got there.
Matthew was being starved and he lost over 25kg over a few months. The DSW pared with my son was hell bent on Matthew loosing a lot of weight and he made it very hard for me to give my son home cooked meals and treats. I would point out to the care worker that if he or I wanted a treat we could go to the shops and buy whatever we wanted. Matthew was not able to do that and it was up to us to provide snacks for him. I was never heard and I was not allowed to feed my son anything extra, so I would have to sneak food into Matthew and hide away while he ate it. If we were caught I was always told off and told my son did not like my food. (I am a gourmet food caterer).
1. I was told not to bring food in for my son as my food contained sugar. (I cook with organic

ingredient and whole foods).

Recently I found Matthew was being fed mince and sausage meat five nights a week.
Matthew is left at the house doing all the housework, including cleaning the bathrooms used by other clients, while the other clients are taken out to the movies and other fun outings
1. Matthew uses an iPad to communicate and I have supplied him with his own. The ipad is

hardly ever made available to Matthew so he is being denide the basic right to communicate.

Often when we try and visit with our son, we arrive at the house after calling ahead to inform them we are coming to visit our son, we get conformation from DSW and when we arrive they are not there. They chose to leave after just confirming with us that they will be home.
I am constantly being told by DSW and the Service Manager that they know what’s best for my son and not me.
They constantly disrespect me as Matthew’s mum and disregard my requests relating to my son. (can you please ensure Matthew has a jacket when he goes out in the cold etc.)
Matthew has had dozens of items of clothing stolen from his room and nothing was ever done.
I have arrived at the house when I have found the house gate, doors, and windows wide open with no one home. I walked through the house with my daughter and found no one was around. I could have been anyone with bad intention and I could have sat in Matthew’s bedroom in wait. Matthew would not call for help or even know he was in danger by a stranger in his room. Before anyone checked on him it would be too late.
On many occasions Matthew has been taken out with inadequate clothing and shivers for hours.
On many occasions when we visit Matthew we were asked to leave as the staff want to take Matthew out for a drive for a few minuites. We are forced to leave and if we or Matthew say no we want to spend time together, they will pick‐up the phone a report us to the house Manager . We are made to feel very uncomfortable.
Matthew does not have access to food at his home apart from fruit that’s kept in the fridge.
When Matthew asks for food I have heard many DSW say “no you can’t have anything now, your always hungry, you will have to wait till dinner” This could be hours away.
The staff will allow Matthew to eat from the rubbish bin in the kitchen, I see this each time I go and visit. Some staff will yell him half‐heartedly not to go through the bin and others pretend they don’t see. I have on many occasions asked the Service Manager to help us work on this, but he refuses.
When taking Matthew to the Doctors recently with a DSW from the house for support, Matthew became scared and ran from the office and I took chase. The DSW stood with her arms crossed, moved out of Matthew’s way and stated well I can’t stop him, I am not allowed to hold him back. She allowed him to run out into the car park where he was almost run over and on many occasions, Matthew was placed in great danger and management as well as staff would just stand by and watch and say “we can’t stop him”.
We are constantly being told that Matthew has no BOC when we are not around but they start to happen as a result of us visiting.
I have saved the best till last. We had been working with Matthew’s DHS’s case manager to lodge his DSR application when he fell ill and was away for months. The application was put aside for a while. We were given a number of case managers over the next period of time and this application was on again and off again with each new worker. We had finally almost finished the application with the assistance of the new case manager when I was diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized again. Again DHHS used this situation to try and takeover Matthew’s custody. I was told that if I don’t get the application finished by the end of the day they were going to take over guardianship of Matthew. We completed the application in fear. We were so frightened of losing Matthew it was unbearable. Matthew had just turned 18 and we did not realize we needed to apply for guardianship, but we made enquiries and quickly realized we needed to, so I started the process and we explained what our situation was and as a result we

were granted total guardianship of Matthew. We are still frightened that DHHS will try and take over Matthew’s guardianship.

Unfortunately in September 2014 my son was the victim of a sexual assault perpetrated by a co resident. The assault was reported to DSW and to management, I reported this to DHs as well as to the SOCIT police unit. There was no mandatory reporting by management.

Matthew was not supported after this assault nor were we. In fact it was all swept under the carpet and there was not even an incident report written. We were told that the Directors would investigate but we heard very little.

After the assault on Matthew he was forced to continue to live with this sexual predator. He was forced to eat meals with him, watch T.V with him, share a bathroom with him, share transport with him, and even sleep in the bedroom next door to him. If that was not bad enough the people employed to protect him were in fact the ones that were placing him in constant risk.

We his family, were treated as if we were causing trouble when we wanted answers to what was being done to protect our son. We suffered at the hands of the Service Manager and some staff. This suffering still continues today.

Life became very difficult at the house and restrictions were forced on us. We were only to visit with our son in a back room of the house and we would be physically moved down past the kitchen and through the house by staff who would physically ushered us into the small room. My son was forced to eat his meal hunched over on a small coffee table in order to spend time with his mum, dad and 13 year old sister. On occasion Matthew would be taken out of the room to the kitchen to have his dinner at the kitchen table, while we were forced to remain in the back room until Matthew had finished his meal, and was returned to us. For most of these visits (which lasted for months) the door was locked from the outside once we were placed inside and we would have to knock on the door if Matthew or we needed to go to the toilet. I was always fearful of what would happen if there was a fire and I would pray that it would happen while Matthew was with us in the room so we would be together as I was fearful of being left behind. Matthew hated this room and would object to spending any time there but staff and management did not care about what Matthew wanted. He was not permitted to use any other part of the house as a form or punishment to us. We were treated like criminals and this had a huge impact on my mental and physical health. the Service Manager was the instigator of this living hell.

It was made very obvious to me that Matthew was not to receive visits from other family members, such as aunts, cousins, grandparents etc. Family were so scared for Matthew’s safety that they stayed away. They did not want him to be punished for their visits.

For years the house managers tried to limit our visits to and on a prearranged day and time. This is still occurring today with the current Service Manager, .

Parents are isolated from one another so they cannot speak to each other. I have been told on many occasions that I was not to talk with the neigbours even if they instigated the conversation.

In a care meeting on the 20th October 2015 with our current house manager and Matthew’s DHHS Case Manager, visitation time was high on his agenda as it is in most meetings. He wanted us to have pre‐

arranged and scheduled times for us to visit our son as well as restricted times to visit our son. We refused and made it very clear that this was for the benefit of management and staff and in no was in Matthew’s best interest. This behaviour is harassment at the highest level and there is nowhere I can go or nothing I can do about it. Even Matthew’s Case Manager was pushing for this to happen and she insisted that Matthew be assessed by an OT to see if he would benefit from schedules. I told her that Matthew did not like to work with schedules and that there was on need for an assessment to happen, and we would continue to visit our son as we had been (about three times a week for about two to three hours per visit). I was left with the very strong impression that both these people did not have Matthews best interest at heart and were working against Matthew and not for him and they were both being paid to do. I was so upset by what had occurred in that meeting, that the next day I asked Matthew’s teacher and the school’s OT to assess Matthew and report on what they thought would be best for Matthew. On the 28th October, I received a document from them stating that they strongly believe that it would not be in Matthew’s best interest to have scheduled and restricted visits from his family, and in fact it would be extremely detrimental to his wellbeing.

The perpetrator that lived with my son has a history of sexual assaults reported to police. He is a seriously violent predator who has acted in a predatory manor towards my boy and others. I have personally witnessed the perpetrator follow Matthew around the house in a stalking manner. He would taunt me by telling me that “your Matthew” is my special friend and he would then stand very close to my Matthew, close enough to be almost touching him and when Matthew would move to get away from him, he would follow Matthew around the house constantly watching him and he would even preempt what direction Matthew would take and race up ahead of him and meet Matthew head on so that their faces would meet as Matthew came around a corner. On two occasions I found the perpetrator in Matthew’s bedroom and when I asked him to leave he shook his head, lay down on Matthew’s bed, smirk and then slowly got up and walked past me still smirking with his arm’s crossed. He was sending me a very clear message. On two occasions I saw him entre the bathroom when my son was showering. I found him standing inside the doorway with his arms folded just watching Matthew, both times he was talking to Matthew but I could not hear what he was saying as on both occasions I just yelled at him to leave now and I closed the door in his face. This perpetrator is an opportunist, he waits and attacks when the opportunity presents itself. Even more frightening is that he can be very charming and has been able to create opportunities that will give him the opportunity to attack.

The perpetrator has sexually and physically attacked his house mates on many occasions. This boy should not be housed with anyone and should be kept segregated, especially from other people with disabilities. These documented reports are horrifying but equally as horrifying and frightening where his disturbing advances towards our 13 year old daughter whilst visiting her brother and whilst on outings. He tried to kiss our young daughter on several occasions, he tried to take photos of her, he even told staff he was doing so. He somehow got hold of my phone number and sent me texts about my children. On a trip into the city to see the Christmas lights whilst standing at Federation Square, he began stalking my daughter again and then did the same to Matthew. He followed my daughter around me and her dad and we quickly had to hide her behind us. This did not stop him from moving around us in order to follow her. He did this to Matthew as well while we were walking down the street towards the Myer windows. We did not get far as Matthew was becoming very upset and my daughter was on the verge of tears due to his predatory behavior. We could not allow this to continue so we had to leave. I took my daughter to our car, while my husband walked Matthew back to his van to ensure he

got there safely. As a mum, I cannot put into words how this made me feel, I have a son who is being stalked by a sexual predator and I can’t do a thing about it.

I reported these incidents to management but we were never taken seriously. Both my husband and I repetiatedtly requested Matthew’s DHS Case Manager put in writing a protection and support plan and submit it to the service. These requests fell on deaf ears and it was never done.

The emotional impact of this behaviour was devastating on my entire family. The impact of what Matthew had gone through and is still experiencing is evident in his increased BOC. Matthew’s OCD is at an all‐time high and he has regressed in many arrears of his life. It is devastating to see my son suffer and to see the fear on his face. I have had to watch as my son’s personality change dramatically from that of a bright and bubbly teenager to that of a young man who is submissive, scared, and withdrawn.

Earlier in the year the house had a change. We no longer had a North West Co‐ordinator, instead we had a Service Manager and a North West Regional Manager. It was the Service Manager who decided he would remove the sleep over staff from the roster in order to cut costs, totally disregarding the boys safety (I know this because I asked him who had removed the staff and he told me it was him). This sleep over staff member was placed there as an extra layer of security against the predator. The Service Manager had been warned by other senior staff members that he was putting the boys at risk if he removed the sleep over shift, but he knows best!

The most recent major incident occurred on the 18th April 2015 at Matthew’s home, but a few days earlier a number of incidents had occurred that should have sent alarm bells ringing. The predator was refusing to go to bed one night and decided he would arm himself with a knife and chased the active night staff member around the kitchen repeatedly. The staff member managed to breakaway and run and hide behind a secure door. The worker should not have opened this secure door as it was installed to protect the sleeping boys and was not meant to be opened in times such as this. The worker mad a phone call to someone within the organisation whilst crying down the phone. He sat behind the door with the predator siting on the floor on the other side of the door. He remained there until the predator fell asleep.

Unbelievably the next night the same DSW was placed back on shift and there was a repeat performance. This time, I believe the police were called.

On the evening of the 18th April, the same worker employed by found himself under attack by the perpetrator. The perpetrator was acting in such a violent way that the police were called. At this time he retreated to his room while the police were in attendance. Shortly after the police left the perpetrator dismantled a piece of gym equipment and proceeded to attack the care worker. The care worker again fled through the hallway alarmed security door, locking himself safely in the staff office. Unfortunately he did not lock the security door behind him, resulting in the perpetrator gaining access to the supposedly secure sleeping area where my son and another client were.

Unfortunately for the other child, he woke up and went to use the bathroom, and it was at this time he was raped by the perpetrator. My son was only a few feet away. (It was reported to us that perpetrator has been bragging about the rape).

We were not notified of the attack by the Service Manager, or by the Regional Manager

or by the Directors,                  but only found out about this through the victim’s father.  All

DSW were told not to tell us. It took days before we were able to find out what had occurred. We immediately contacted the police (the same police who had recorded the sexual attack on my son by the

perpetrator in September 2014.) We had asked the question about the attack on the 18th April and asked if my son was placed at risk of another attack and were told that Matthew was indeed placed at risk and we should have him checked, although several days had lapsed and the likely hood of any evidence would be almost nonexistent. (due to management not informing us of the assault when it had occurred). We also found out that the police had actually been called out to the house twice on that night and had in fact they conducted two separate welfare checks on my son but again these were not reported to us at all. Why should they we are only Matthew’s parents!!

At this point the only assistance we received from management was that we were told that the perpetrator was being kept segregated from all the residence and that safety precautions were being taken to try and ensure the safety of the young victims. We were being treated as if we were just being nosy. This was disgusting. We called for a meeting with management immediately and we met with the house line manager and another member of management but we were told that the house manager was told not to attend. We asked for Matthew’s case manager from DHHS to attend as well.

There was no explanation as to why we were not informed, no explanation how this sexual assault was permitted to occur, she provided us with absolutely nothing especially when I pushed her on the question on how could the Service Manager continue to keep putting the same DSW on night after night once he showed that he was not responsible enough to follow the rules that were put in place to protect the boys. She then assured us that she had laid off the worker in question and he would not be returning to work. Before leaving the meeting I asked her again to confirm that he had been laid off and she confirmed this.

The Directors, Service Manager and the DSW in question had all failed in their duty of care and placed my son at real risk.

The next night I called the house and asked the night staff who was rostered on for the active night. They told me they did not know, that it was not on the roster. I knew immediately that something was not right so I went to the house and I found the same worker I had been told had been laid off. I felt sick and I phoned the owner of the business directly, one of the owners of and told her what had happened and. I did not leave my son alone there that night or several nights after. She organized a meeting the next day at DHHS in Footscray. There were many people from the DHHS. The line manager could not understand what all the fuss was about and she quickly denied ever saying that she laid the worker off. I became outraged and started crying telling her she was lying, I was so upset I stood up and told them all that I will not be lied to and that this meeting was over. A senior DHHS worker walked out of the meeting room with me and tried to calm me down. She took me into another room where I was quizzed as to what had occurred in the lead up to this. She was very disturbed at what I told her, I then remembered that two separate people had taken took minutes of that meeting so we need to see the minutes. Mathew’s case manager was one of them and when I asked her if what I said was true she was very reluctant to answer. The DHHS senior manager ordered her to check her minutes and of course I was right, the other manager from Matthew’s house also took minutes and they also confirmed what I said was true. This was a harrowing experience for us, and we had no faith in any of the people

that were meant to be protecting Matthew. Most of these people were in fact doing the opposite. I would on many occasions upon arriving at the house, would witness the manager totally disobeying direct orders from the owners of the service. These were orders that were designed to keep the predator away from the other residence. This arrogant manager, would have the perpetrator sitting at the table with the boys, or in the same room as the boys and I even witnessed him in the same bathroom as my son. Again this manager does what he wants. On each occasion I would protest but he would stop me talking by raising his hand out and saying “stop, its ok I know what I am doing”. But the attacks kept happening until the inevitable rape.

As I had predicted and warned him and staff many times, the perpetrator managed to outsmart everyone and gain access to the boy’s secure sleeping area and commit a rape and possibly two.

He has since been charged by police but it took several weeks before he was removed from the house. My boy was forced to live with this predator as DHHS would not have him moved from my son’s home. I kept hearing from the Director, from the Service Manager and from DHHS that the perpetrator has rights as well. After what seemed like a lifetime, The Directors of the service moved him out and into a hotel with DSW until DHHS were able to find a secure residential setting for him.

At this time I asked for written confirmation from the Director that the perpetrator would not return to the house and less than three hours after receiving that written confirmation he was returned to the front of the premises by a DSW. I have no confidence that Matthew will not be placed in harm’s way

again by the predator returning to the house. I felt helpless and the only way I felt I could protect my son was to secure an intervention order, which I did.

The latest issue we are faced with is that Autism Plus feel it is best for Matthew.

Matthew did nothing wrong to be placed in this situation he finds himself. People with disability in care are the most vulnerable people in our society and we should do everything we can to ensure they are kept safe and are treated with dignity and respect.

I have many recommendations which I would love the opportunity to discuss with the panel. There are many, many issues people with ASD face each and every day. We need to remember that most of the people we are talking about are not able to speak and cannot communicate or ask for assistance, it is up to us to be their voice and support.

There are many other issues and situations I would like to share and I would cherish the opportunity to speak directly to the Panel and answer any questions they may have.

Submission made by: Anne Mallia