Care system in Australia deeming person incapable of looking after their lives

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Families and advocates say state care system is being used against the very people it meant to protect. About 50- thousand people in Australia are deemed incapable of making their own decisions and have their lives controlled by state guardians and public trustees.

Transcript

00:00For years, Kayla's life wasn't her own.

00:06Decisions about where she lived and how she could spend her money were all made for her.

00:11They don't know anything about my life. They've only just come into my life.

00:15Now they're telling me where I can live and for how long.

00:18Who the hell are these people?

00:20The 24-year-old managed to escape the system and wants to tell her story.

00:25But it's illegal for us to share her real name or face.

00:30Kayla has a rare brain condition which can cause intellectual disability.

00:35Her mother, Claire, was going through a messy divorce and said she wanted to protect Kayla's nest egg, $20,000.

00:43This paper trail inks a timeline of what followed.

00:47A descent into what mother and daughter describe as hell.

00:51I was completely stripped of any ability to protect her.

00:57And when I go through this information, it's like a horror story that someone's made up.

01:03On the advice of her lawyer, Claire applied to WA State Tribunal to manage Kayla's finances.

01:09Claire says that decision opened the floodgates for her former husband to make applications to the tribunal.

01:16You took us back there time and time and time again.

01:20Kayla's father told the tribunal it was Claire who wanted total control over their daughter.

01:27Ultimately, the state took over almost every decision in Kayla's life.

01:33Through the Office of the Public Advocate and Public Trustee.

01:36It felt like I was in a prison cell.

01:39Even like going out with a social group, I didn't have access to a phone.

01:44The Public Advocate says it makes decisions in clients' best interests and can't comment on individual cases.

01:50Both mother and daughter say they felt as though the state care system had been weaponised against them.

01:57Anyone can make an application for the state to take control of someone's life.

02:01Often, those applications are made by doctors, carers or family members who are concerned.

02:07But they can also be made by complete strangers and people looking to cause harm.

02:16Maxine Drake has advocated for hundreds of families through WA State Tribunal.

02:21What we're also seeing is a concern from my point of view, what might be called vexatious applications.

02:27To try to impinge upon either the freedoms of the person or the freedoms of others around them.

02:35It took years of wrestling in the tribunal for Kayla to break free.

02:41But confidentiality provisions still prevent us from identifying her.

02:46Across Australia, about 50,000 people are under state care.

02:50The ABC contacted every state and territory's public guardian.

02:54Three of them want the blanket gag laws to be scrapped with safeguards.

02:59The Northern Territory says it supports sensible reform.

03:03The others believe confidentiality should be the norm in order to protect sensitive information.

03:09The confidentiality laws in this area are a real problem.

03:13They're a problem for the community because there's no accountability.

03:17There's no visibility into the system.

03:20And still, we're controlled.

03:23Free, but still hidden under a veil of secrecy.

03:28Free, but still hidden under a veil of secrecy.

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