Brett McPherson- Smith

Family member of a person with disability

I have two young disabled sons and until we entered the system of schools and care agencies we had no idea of the dishonesty, cruelty and complete disregard for disabled people.
Now we are in the system we constantly face unprofessional, dishonest and downright evil behaviour from the various agencies that are meant to help us. They seem to know that the families are powerless, how to do the greatest damage to hurt us and our sons and are fearless in their abuse of our vulnerability knowing that we don’t have the knowledge, time or energy to bring them to account for their despicable behaviour.
Quite unexpectedly we were directed to an advocate named Christine Aguis from Action for people with disability and we have been spared most of the ongoing deception from the various agencies and schools. Just saying that we have an advocate is enough to stop a lot of the discrimination and when we have had our sons advocate attend meeting the agencies are amazingly pleasant.
Our sons advocate is essential to the well being of our family as she provides a level of scrutiny to all our dealings within the system and that ensures e are not as vulnerable to the horrible people who are supposed to be helping us.
We would happily provide dates and times of the many incidents of abuse and neglect our family has suffered if required.
We would recommend that advocates are made more available to more families