Disabled people, their whānau and advocates are sharing stories of historical abuse at the Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry Disability, Deaf and Mental Health institutional care. The hearing runs from July 11 to July 20.
Content warning: This story contains accounts of abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Matthew Whiting spent eight of his formative years in Burwood Hospital in Christchurch where he was sexually abused, put into isolation and had food shoved down his throat.
Whiting, who has cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia and a speech impairment, told the Abuse in Care hearing on Tuesday that Burwood Hospital was a prison with no bars.
He lived there from age 13 to 21 because his parents believed it was the best place for him, but he became institutionalised, had no choice about his day-to-day life and was forced to hide in a lift to get some personal space.
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One day, when Whiting refused to eat, a nurse held his nose and shoved the food down his throat.
“I was living day after day in a system of power and control…When you can’t move yourself, you don’t have any choice. The way that staff members wanted things done, that was the way it was done. There is a massive power imbalance,” he said.
Counsel Assist Ruth Thomas who is leading the Abuse in Care Disability, Deaf, and Mental Health institutional care hearing.
When Whiting was 15, he was touched and kissed by a nurse without any choice in what was happening, he said. He only later realised as an adult how she had abused and taken advantage of him.
When he was a child, a specialist incorrectly believed he had a learning impairment, however a child psychologist later confirmed he had above average intelligence.
His adoptive home was “significantly dysfunctional” with a lot of verbal violence. He moved to family homes at the age of 7 which was upsetting and made him believe that his impairments were to blame for the family’s difficulties.
He was then moved to Pukeora Hospital where some staff members abused their power and control over the residents. “Nobody asked me what I wanted… I was terrified. I felt like I was being controlled all the time… It was like sending someone to prison at 11 years old,” he said.
He was living in a dormitory and was threatened by two men who he saw performing a sex act on each other, leaving him feeling vulnerable and powerless.
Whiting was put in isolation by staff both in Pukeora and Burwood.
He told the hearing about the discrimination he still faced every day as a disabled person, from discriminatory questions in job interviews to being ignored by waiters.
“I’m treated like I can’t do it, like I can’t talk. I am put down. Every single day, my sense of self is affected.”
He was diagnosed with PTSD in 2018 and had to fight to get a sensitive claim from ACC for the sexual abuse he suffered.
Whiting wanted societal and systemic changes to address the imbalance of power in the disability sector which is significantly underfunded.
He has worked as the regional disability leadership coordinator and service manager for CCS Disability Action for the past 21 years.
Abigail Dougherty
Lusi Faiva, a Samoan dancer with cerebral palsy who won the Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Award: Artistic Achievement Award.
Another witness, Lusi Faiva, told the Royal Commission that when she was two years old, after being diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a doctor told her mother to send her to an institution, where it was assumed she had an intellectual disability.
She was sent to the Kimberly Centre in Levin until she was seven, where she experienced emotional, medical, and cultural neglect.
“I am a proud Sāmoan woman. I am an artist, dancer and passionate freedom seeker,” she said.
She told the hearing about how institutions dehumanised disabled people, and that care being provided by disability support services today still fundamentally operate under a similar system with a lack of respect for freedom of choice.
Faiva said there were no activities for the children in Kimberley which felt “dark and cold”.
She did not know how to express herself and those around her assumed she had an intellectual disability, so she felt trapped in herself and there was no recognition of her Samoan culture.
“The nurses didn’t look after me properly. They only times that the nurses came onto the ward was to give us children our medicine, and then they left. Once I fell and broke my ankle because no one was watching me… Care was about medication, changing, showering and other very clinical procedures,” she said.
“Being in care was like a slap in the face. There was no freedom of choice in entering care. I was lost in care. There was no acceptance, belief or trust from others that I needed freedom.”
While she was now living independently, support services were still not resourced enough to provide care and support when she needed them urgently and getting funding for technology that allowed her to communicate was not easy.
“I am left without care and support for a long period of time. This reality is a reflection that the system lacks the respect for freedom and even basic human needs,” she said.
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