To whom it may concern
Up until January 2020, I was living in New South Wales.
My disability support services were provided by N based at Building in
During one particular weekend in October 2019, my support worker shifts
were abruptly cancelled by N s operations manager, L There
was no obvious reason for this to occur.
I was left with no support for the whole of that weekend and the only person I was able to contact to help me was my NDIS plan manager, S
Subsequently, at my direction, S contacted the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to report what had occurred and the extreme distress it caused me at the time and afterwards.
While S was given a reference number for my submission, she was told by the Commission that they could not generate an investigation because I needed to speak with the Commission myself.
Given my disability, I needed support to speak with the Commission, however none of my support workers were able to do this as they were all frightened of the ramifications that would occur by providing information that showed their employer (N ) in a poor light.
Ultimately, despite S speaking with the Commission, I did not receive any return contact from them at that time. I was only able to generate a submission in February 2020 after I relocated to Tasmania and was supported
by T at Spinal Cord Injuries Australia to do so; T was able to
advocate for me when I spoke with the Commission by phone. The complaint number is
I asked the Commission to contact my psychologist Dr J who witnessed many events of abuse perpetrated against me by so-called support services while I lived in NSW; J was my ‘voice’ in some ways and could explain my situation and the events that occurred.
I also submitted videos, emails, voice messages, copies of employee rosters and other written information to the Commission, regarding abusive and neglectful events. Perhaps the most damning evidence of neglect was the
photo I submitted of a sign in my home which stated that I should not be left on my own at any time, but of course I had been.
My understanding is that the matter was raised by the Commission with
N ; frankly speaking, N ’s response was a mass of lies and
misdirection.
I submitted further information to the Commission, subsequently. The last thing I heard from the Commission was that they were going to contact N again, however I have heard nothing since and I have not been given a timeline of when I might get an outcome.
To sum up, the Commission received a complaint regarding a disability client being in massive distress who was left for an entire weekend without food or medication. When my NDIS plan manager took this to the Commission, they said that they could nothing until I called them – what if I was physically unable to do this without support? And, given that my support workers at N were too fearful to help me make a complaint against their employer, I was unlikely to be able to make a submission on my own. I felt so trapped with no way to have my voice heard.
To be blunt, any time I did anything that N didn’t like, they would cancel my support worker shifts as punishment.
The Commission seem to have dismissed the concerns I raised after only a cursory examination. They automatically took the side of N and did not listen to what I or Dr J had to say about my treatment.
The actual Commission complaints process is very difficult to follow and is not even close to being user-friendly. The Commission makes it so difficult to follow up that a cynical person might think this is done purposely to avoid having to engage with complainants.
Having to jump through hoops to make a complaint and then having it followed up appropriately is difficult enough, but when you add a disability into the mix, it becomes much more difficult. There appears to be zero accountability for either the service provider at fault or the Commission which have been tasked with following up complaints about provider services.
During my time in New South Wales, I was regularly verbally abused, neglected and left to starve for days on end. I observed abuse of power, unlawful
restrictive practice, systemic abuse and exploitation at different services over a 4 year period and to such a serious degree that I felt terrorised and trapped.
Under the ‘care’ of one service I attempted suicide on two occasions, one of which required resuscitation. The support service and the NDIS covered this up.
I also witnessed events such as these happening to others. I have a lot of evidence around these issues including photos, voice recordings and emails.
Thankyou for taking my submission into account, I am available to take part in live hearings into this issue as necessary.