Care death warning: there will be others

Oakden aged-care whistleblower warns: ‘We don’t know how many Ann Maries are out there’.

The warning has been echoed by the man who started the Community Visitor Scheme, which oversees the work of case workers to make sure that people are receiving proper care.

The whistleblower who revealed the shocking abuse of elderly people with disabilities at the ­notorious Oakden aged-care ­facility has issued a national warning about the implications of the Ann Marie Smith case: “We don’t know how many Ann Maries are out there.”

Stewart Johnston, whose late mother Helen was among several Oakden residents who endured neglect and violence at the now-closed Adelaide facility, told The Weekend Australian that when he heard of Smith’s death he felt “like it was a flashback”.

“There is a hidden underbelly in this country and anyone who thinks that Ann Marie’s death is an isolated case has got rocks in their head,” Mr Johnston said.

“Her case raises so many serious questions, from the extent of the oversight which was exactly the problem at Oakden, to the fact that there are literally billions of dollars at stake and so much money to be made through the provision of private care for people with disabilities, but without the systems and structures to make sure that the care is up to standard.

“In Ann Marie’s case, I just felt gutted when I learned about it because it felt like another Oakden. And by another Oakden I don’t mean an incident but a pattern of behaviour where people or organisations can get away with hiding systemic ­neglect or abuse.”

His warning has been echoed by the man who started the Community Visitor Scheme, which oversees the work of case workers to make sure that people such as Smith are receiving proper care.

Maurice Corcoran established the scheme in 2011 and served as the principal community visitor until September last year. He said one of his concerns about the Smith’s case was that she — like 365,000 other Australians — was on a formal plan under the National Disability Insurance Scheme that appeared to have done nothing to ensure she was receiving proper care.

“The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has overarching responsibility over NDIS recipients but they don’t have within their gambit the role of proactively visiting people,” Mr Corcoran told The Weekend Australian.

He said there appeared to be gaps in the oversight provided by the federal and state bodies, ­especially in SA where the Marshall government decided last year that it would no longer ­extend the Community Visitor Scheme to privately run care.

There are now three inquiries under way into the death of Smith, and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, ­Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability took the rare step of issuing its own statement this week, its commissioners saying they were “appalled” by the “deeply distressing” nature of the 54-year-old’s death and flagging their own inquiry once the others have concluded.

For the last year of her life, Smith, who was disabled, sat immobile in a wicker chair in her Adelaide home. A support worker was meant to tend to her six hours a day. Smith developed septic shock, multiple organ failure and malnutrition, and died at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on April 6.