Where’s the outrage on tying up disabled?

If Dylan Voller’s treatment at Don Dale created a national outcry, why doesn't the chemical and physical restraint of the disabled?

If Dylan Voller’s treatment in the Don Dale detention centre created a national outcry and instant political action, why doesn’t the ongoing chemical and physical restraint of people with disability in group homes, which remains legal, attract the same outrage, the disability royal commission has been asked.

Criminologist Claire Spivakovsky told the commission some of the “restrictive practices” imposed on people with disability were “barbaric” and a systematised form of “violence and abuse”.

“If they happened in any other context or in relation to any other population, we would be outraged and we would be doing something about this,” Dr Spivakovsky said. “If we think about … Dylan Voller in the Northern Territory … and the terrible footage that was shown of him strapped in a chair with a spithood over his head, and the outrage that sparked within the general public … why can’t we see (restrictive practices) in the same way?”

As the commission continues its week-long examination of disability group homes, Dr Spivakovsky said restrictive practices including chemical, physical and mechanical restraints — which can be granted by administrative order if a person has previously exhibited a pattern of violent or dangerous behaviour and poses a significant risk of serious harm to another person — continued to be used at a “concerning rate”.

“To me, when we give someone medication forcefully against their will, we strap them down and we hold them down, when we lock them in rooms, that is violence and abuse,” she said.

“A person can have, in essence, a version of chemical castration. Giving people quite significant amount of chemicals to change their behaviour. They can be locked within either their own room or within the service provider’s premises. If they are to go out they require two-to-one supervision.”

Group homes, which usually house between four and six people with disability, are under the commission’s microscope in the wake of a series of shocking cases of sexual assault earlier this decade.

Ilan Wiesel, an expert in the field of disability housing, told the commission group homes emerged in the 1970s and 80s as an accommodation option for people with physical and mental disabilities.

“I don’t believe most people would have chosen to live in group homes, but I think they should have been asked. There was no choice for people about where they would be rehoused (or) about who they lived with in a group home,” Dr Wiesel said.