Disability Royal Commission: Toowoomba mum Toni Mitchell hopes final report will lead to changes in health sector

Toni Mitchell has had to fight for Joshy’s life since before he was born — now she’s hoping the latest royal commission into the abuse of people with disabilities will see significant changes.

Toni Mitchell knows her son Joshy wouldn’t be as sick if doctors and medical professionals hadn’t overlooked him because of his disability.

“He’s got two organs in failure and early onset dementia from all the trauma and countless surgeries — he’s totally relying on machines to keep his body functioning,” the Toowoomba mother said.

Ms Mitchell is hoping the federal government’s endorsement of the 222 recommendations made by the Disability Royal Commission will ensure no family has to endure what she went through advocating for the wellbeing of her 23-year-old son.

The pair’s story and struggle is part of the final 12-volume report, which concluded that people with disabilities experienced far higher rates of abuse, neglect and violence than people with them.

Toni Mitchell and her son Josh Mitchell, Friday, April 22, 2022. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The commissioners also found people with disabilities faced barriers to getting both access and choice of quality healthcare, education, employment and housing, something Ms Mitchell experienced first-hand.

Joshy, who has Down syndrome along with a host of disabilities and conditions, was given little chance of surviving past birth by the medical community.

His mother said she faced a never-ending fight for Joshy’s life to be taken seriously.

“He had been denied treatment, appropriate care, referrals — he would not have been as sick as he is, if he had been given appropriate treatment at the time,” she said.

“His disability overshadows his other health issues, which completely brought (any treatment) to a full stop.

“By the time we finally got answers, his body was shutting down.”

Her comments are reflected in the testimony she gave as one of the 837 witnesses speaking at 32 public hearings since 2019.

“Examples of diagnostic overshadowing provided to the Royal Commission include from Ms Toni Mitchell, who gave evidence that she believed her son Joshy had been ‘in constant excruciating pain every single day and the doctors we saw had just dismissed it as Down syndrome’,” the report said.

Among the hundreds of recommendations from the report, which were all endorsed by the Albanese Government, was a “right to equitable access to health services”.

Ms Mitchell said she had already started seeing the impacts in practice, noting changes to the state government’s training of health staff when treating people with disabilities.

“We’ve seen the direct responses to our experiences and how they have become major changes based on what Joshy and I have experienced,” she said.

“It made me feel like we’ve been recognised and understood and we’re equals in implementing change, which was really important.

“The tests and reports have shown how much discrimination and abuse persists in our community and hopefully this instigates this change.

“The department of health is working actively in implementing plans and programs, statewide, and hopefully that will mean the people coming behind Joshy won’t have to go through what Joshy went through.”

Witness Toni Mitchell says her son Joshua, who has Down syndrome, was held down by his throat by doctors and security guards during a simple dental appointment at a Queensland hospital. Picture: Royal Commission via NCA NewsWire

Despite the positives achieved so far, Ms Mitchell said the testimonies of people with disabilities and their carers during the royal commission reminded her of how far Australia still had to go.

“It’s a lot of mixed feelings — we’re very happy that it’s finished and that all the recommendations are there,” she said.

“At the same time, there is a lot of sadness that there was so much abuse that needed to be recorded.

“People have died because of this overshadowing issue, we are fortunate that even though Joshy is sick, he’s still alive.

“People have lost their loved ones because medical professionals refused to look beyond a disability.”