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Brumby Government subjects vulnerable Victorians to seclusion and restraint

Sunday, May 09, 2010

COMMUNITY SERVICES MINISTER FAILS TO PROTECT VICTORIANS LIVING WITH A DISABILITY

Under John Brumby the basic human rights of highly vulnerable people in this state have been serially abused and the law has been repeatedly broken, Shadow Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge said today.

"The Brumby Government’s own report paints a shocking picture of exclusion, isolation and restrictive practices used against Victorians with multiple disabilities in predominantly state run facilities," Ms Wooldridge said.

According to the Office of the Senior Practitioner Annual Report for 2008/09, thousands of Victorians living with a disability are subjected to seclusion and restraint practices, often without any plan in place to ensure the practice results in a change in behaviour for the future.

The Brumby Government report by the Senior Practitioner reveals:

• 2,036 people with disabilities experienced over 32,000 episodes of seclusion, chemical or mechanical restraint;
• a staggering 827 people are subject to continual seclusion and/or restraint for between 10 and 12 months each year;
• the use of seclusion and restraints is significantly more prevalent in facilities run by the Brumby Government than community-run facilities; and
• the overall number of young people aged between 5 and 24 subject to restrictive practices has increased by more than 12 per cent over the past year to a total of 631 people, 216 of whom are under 15.

"It is unbelievable that John Brumby and his government permit more than 800 high needs individuals to be effectively institutionalised through continuous seclusion and restraint, an approach the Senior Practitioner said is clearly not working," Ms Wooldridge said.

"It is also evident that the protections for vulnerable Victorians put in place by this Labor Government are not being enforced, with only two-thirds of all the Behaviour Support Plans prepared and submitted to the Senior Practitioner. This is a clear breach of statutory requirements.

"Of those that were completed, a significant number needed to be rewritten or altered to ensure they were appropriate. The Senior Practitioner alarmingly found that none of the plans were judged to be likely to be able to effect a change in behaviour of concern.

"This is yet another example of the inability of this Labor Government to care for and protect the rights of Victorians with a disability," Ms Wooldridge said.