HDC breached two support workers who verbally abused a young disabled woman

A young disabled woman was verbally abused by two support workers tasked to care for her.

Two support workers verbally abused a young disabled woman in a residential care home for offenders during a disagreement over an iPad.

In a 20-minute audio recording that captured the raised voices, the woman was called an “ugly human being”, “mental”, and told she was hated and had no friends.

While the woman did not make a complaint, Rose Wall, Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner, initiated an investigation into her care after a former support worker at the disability service raised concerns.

Today, Wall released her investigation findings, which found the support workers, referred to as Ms B and Ms C, breached the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights by failing to provide an appropriate standard of care and failing to treat the woman with respect. Ms B also failed to treat the woman with dignity and independence.

One of the support workers was fired from the disability service, which is not named, while the other left following an internal investigation.

According to the findings, the woman, referred to as Ms A, was residing at the group home which supports care recipients who have committed an offence, and who have intellectual disabilities and high and complex needs. It is a secure environment where the activities of care recipients are supervised by staff.

Ms A was in her 20s and has a complex social and medical history. She was ordered by the court to reside at the home in 2021 after she was found unfit to stand trial for criminal charges.

Her care and rehabilitation plan stated that the common theme in her offending was her not getting what she wanted, becoming frustrated and, in response, behaving in an antisocial manner.

At the care home, she is supervised constantly by at least one staff member due to the Care Order and her complex presentation and behaviours.

Ms A meets with a psychologist fortnightly and several support plans, including a behaviour management plan, ensure the delivery of her safe and appropriate care.

But one evening in mid-December 2022, those plans were not properly followed by Ms B and C.

A third support worker, Ms D, began an audio recording as a situation with Ms A and the support workers over an iPad escalated.

The verbal altercation occurred because Ms A wanted to keep her iPad and charger in her room, which was not allowed in the group home.

Ms D told the HDC that Ms B was slamming doors and abusing and threatening Ms A. Ms C was “hurling insults” at Ms A in the background. Ms A was “standing up for herself” while Ms D tried to calm her down.

The HDC was provided a copy of the recording and the findings detailed several inappropriate comments directed at Ms A.

“ ... the slamming of doors can be heard. Ms B can be heard yelling and speaking to Ms A in a raised voice and calling Ms A offensive names. Ms B can also be heard saying ‘I hate you too’, ‘I can’t stand you’, ‘you’re an ugly human being’, ‘you’re mental enough’, and ‘no one is your friend, you don’t have any’ to Ms A.

“Ms C’s raised voice can be heard in the background, but it is unclear from the audio recording what Ms C said to Ms A.”

‘Categorically unacceptable’

Ms B later filled out a behaviour-related incident report detailing verbal abuse, yelling, swearing, name calling and behaviour causing fear. She documented the incident was brought about because Ms A “wanted things to go how she wanted them to and elevated as soon as she was told no”.

She did not include any reference to the verbal abuse by her or the other staff member towards Ms A in the report.

Ms D went on to make a verbal, formal complaint to Ms E, the care co-ordinator and house manager to whom Ms B and C reported.

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall investigated the incident.

She later raised concerns to the HDC about Ms E’s management of the incident, stating Ms E did not listen to the audio recording and asked Ms D to delete it.

Ms E told the HDC she had told her to delete it because she understood it had been recorded without the consent of the parties involved, making it illegal. She said she directed Ms D to formalise her complaint by submitting it through an online portal.

Following the incident, Ms E met with Ms A, and later Ms B and C to discuss the incident. She made recommendations for the two support workers around caring for Ms A. They were offered support through an employee assistance programme and agreed to meet with Ms E fortnightly to review matters. Ms E believed the matter did not need to be escalated.

However, the disability service went on to investigate the incident. The allegation against Ms B was substantiated and her employment was terminated.

The service said the allegation that Ms C was “hurling insults” at Ms A was unable to be substantiated to a level required by natural justice and employment law, but following the incident, she was removed from the group home and had no further contact with Ms A. She subsequently left her employment.

The disability service told the HDC that the behaviour of Ms B and Ms C in the audio recording was “categorically unacceptable”, and it went against its policies, procedures, Code of Conduct, and values.

In her findings, Wall said she had initiated an investigation into the matters, despite the woman not supporting a complaint, because of the seriousness of the issues raised and the woman’s vulnerability.

She said Ms A should have been treated with dignity and respect regardless of her challenging behaviour.

While Wall breached the two support workers, she made an adverse comment about Ms E, finding she failed to treat her colleague’s complaint seriously and did not escalate the matter.

According to the findings, the service has apologised to the woman and sought feedback from those in its care about the services they receive and reminded of their rights under the Code. Staff have undergone resilience training and a refresher on the Code.

The service will need to provide evidence to the HDC of its changes and Wall has also recommended Ms C provide a written apology to the woman. Ms B has already done so.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.