Abuse reports tumble as power given to disability homes

Reporting of major incidents ­in privately run disability group homes in Victoria fell 35 per cent after a change in rules.

Reporting of major incidents ­including abuse and restraint ­affecting residents in privately run disability group homes in Victoria fell 35 per cent in 2018-19 after service providers were given the power to categorise incidents as major or non-major, the ­disability royal commission has been told.

Victorian Disability Services Commissioner Arthur Rogers told the commission he received about 1000 reports a year from service providers of major incidents, but self-reporting was leading to fewer reports.

“I’ve seen a reduction in incident reporting where providers have been given a change to a system where they could make a judgment about what’s major and non-major,” Mr Rogers said.

“Over the last course of last ­financial year when that provision was provided to service providers, I saw a 35 per cent reduction in incident reporting. So I guess that tells you where you give more subjective ability to providers, they will tend to report less than they have previously.”

Mr Rogers also said incident reports rarely mentioned the use of restraints on group-home residents, even though restraints often emerged as an issue when a person died and a full service ­review was done.

“We see (restraint) a lot in … ­reviews of deaths because … we actually have a broader look at the service and we see it too often there,” Mr Rogers said. “We don’t often see an incident reported where there has been an unauthorised use of restraint.”

The use of chemical, physical and mechanical restraints is one issue being examined by the commission as it explores whether group homes are an ­appropriate accommodation ­option for people with disability. Mr Rogers said staff at group homes often didn’t realise what they were doing was unauthorised restraint.

The commission also heard how some people with disability had been forced to move out of a group home due to violence by other residents. “Most of those incidents of client-to-client abuse are a direct result of basically herding people together without choice, without compatibility, in compressed situations,” said Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability chief executive Kevin Stone.

He said the advocacy group’s recent cases included a man too afraid to use the toilet due to violence in the household, and another who had been sleeping in the hallway after an altercation.