Disabled Victorians spend years locked in mental helath wards

SOME Victorians are spending years behind bars as they wait for accommodation and services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

VULNERABLE Victorians with complex needs are spending years behind bars, locked in mental health wards or hopping between motels, as they wait for accommodation and services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The Office of the Public Advocate released a scathing report card of the rollout of NDIS programs to help this group — many of whom have autism, intellectual disabilities and multiple needs — highlighting the “significant harm” caused when people don’t receive adequate support.

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Victorian Public Advocate Colleen Pearce said while many of these clients qualified for $1 million-plus packages under the scheme — among the biggest in the state — the support services needed to enact the plans were either not qualified, non-existent or unwilling to take these people on.

“They’re handballed between the disability and mental health systems, but increasingly we’re seeing them ending up in prison for extended periods of time — on remand — because there is nowhere else for them to go,” Dr Pearce said.

“Because they’re the most challenging and complex people, there are a lack of service providers who are willing and able to help.”

Vulnerable Victorians with complex needs are spending years behind bars, locked in mental health wards or hopping between motels, as they wait for accommodation and services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

More than 183,000 Australians are now supported by the NDIS, with almost one in three not having received government support before now.

The OPA’s The Illusion of Choice and Control, due to be released this week, is centred on the case studies of 12 clients and makes 15 recommendations to improve the adequacy of plans, address the lack of service providers and specialised staff, and find accommodation for this population. One case study details the experiences of a woman who has received different mental illness diagnoses, who breached an intervention order by trying to get home to see her parents and was charged with resisting arrest.

Despite being unfit to stand trial, she was remanded for nearly 600 days while her NDIS plan and service workers were arranged. Her initial plan was $60,000, but a review found she was eligible for $1.2 million in support.

After further time spent living in caravan parks and a hospital, the agency has approved her application for a purpose-built home to cater for her complex needs and behaviours. “These people have suffered trauma, they have not had their needs met, they’ve been constantly let down by the system,” Dr Pearce said.

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