When volunteers visited the 21-year-old woman, who had a severe intellectual disability and cerebral palsy, she clung to one of them sobbing. Her visitors, who came from the Office of the Public Advocate, had watched as she was half-carried, half dragged from a taxi by her carers, falling several times as she was brought inside the residential care facility. When the visitors questioned staff from the government-funded residential home about the woman’s swollen elbow, staff claimed that she “did not really feel pain” and she had “an extreme tolerance – even indifference – to pain”. They claimed they could distinguish between the different cries she made. They left her sobbing. Community Visitors, and the Office of the Public Advocate – which supports them – raised repeated fears over eight months about the woman’s safety. This included a written notice to the Department of Health and Human Service’s division deputy secretary in January, warning of “grave” concerns about her wellbeing, safety and dignity. She was fed propped in a beanbag, despite the choking risk it posed, in a house that lacked the safety equipment she needed. The woman died in hospital five months ago, two days after her 22nd birthday. Her death is now under Coronial investigation. Her plight is just one of the horrific failures uncovered by the Office of the Public Advocate’s community visitors – volunteers who visit people living in disability services and mental health facilities, and people in supported residential services. The office’s annual report shows community visitors’ reports of abuse, neglect and assaults in the sector rose to 321 in the past financial year, up from 265 the previous year – a 21 per cent increase. They include assaults made against staff, by staff, and between residents.
