A disability advocate says the death of a woman with “significant” disabilities and who was living in “squalid conditions” is a reminder that change is needed to ensure people do not “slip through the cracks”.
South Australia police are investigating whether a 26-year-old woman suffering from a “serious medical condition and had open wounds and sores” at a home in Port Augusta was the result of criminal neglect.
The woman was taken to hospital last Thursday but died four days later.
Her death has been declared a major crime and police said it bears “similarities” to the South Australian case of neglect victim Ann Marie Smith.
Ms Smith died in April 2020 from severe septic shock, organ failure, severe pressure sores, malnutrition and issues connected with her cerebral palsy.
Police believed the 54-year-old spent up to a year confined to a cane chair inside her home for 24 hours a day.
Ann Marie Smith died in April 2020.
(Supplied: SA Police)
The 54-year-old’s death sparked numerous investigations and reviews, including by police, the state government and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability also took a strong interest in the case and looked at what has been learnt since Ms Smith’s death to help protect other people with disability.
People With Disability Australia deputy CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said they were astounded with the news of the recent death despite efforts to reform the sector.
“My first thoughts were: how is this still happening?” they said.
“We’ve heard so many of these harrowing accounts that there needs to be active change because this should not still be happening after all the work that has been done.
“We know that sometimes people slipped through the cracks and then you end up with these very tragic and horrifying consequences.”
Safeguarding those outside the NDIS
Police said the Port Augusta woman had required ongoing care and support, but was not an NDIS participant.
Major Crime officer-in-charge Detective Superintendent Des Bray said police had been unable to identify a current care plan for the woman.
Megan Spindler-Smith is the deputy CEO of People with Disability Australia. (ABC News: Jessica Horner)
Spindler-Smith said there were 2.5 million people with disability under 65 years old but only 650,000 of those are on the NDIS and “have that additional level of review”.
“I think also the big issue is we have to acknowledge that people are inside and outside the NDIS,” they said.
“When we’re talking about safeguarding we have to acknowledge that those who do not have access to the NDIS are very much reliant on family and friends to do the reporting but then they can also be the perpetrators.”
They said a strong independent referral pathway to report abuse was needed but they do not want fast-tracking to come at the expense of co-designing a process with people with disability.
“We know that there is not a strong enough independent or safeguarding process that allows anyone who witnesses or is concerned about abuse to report it,” they said.
“Until that occurs in every state and territory under legislation with independent bodies to oversee it … we’re always going to have the limitations and the lack of oversight and inflexibility when you’ve got people on multiple systems.”
Police outside the woman’s house at Port Augusta on Tuesday. (ABC News)
Major crime investigation
Superintendent Bray said the death of the Port Augusta woman had “some similarities” to Ms Smith’s death as well as “some distinctions” which he declined to elaborate.
“The difference is with Annie Smith we knew at the outset that that neglect contributed to a death,” he said.
“That’s unclear in this case at this stage.”
He said the Port Augusta woman had “significant physical and intellectual disabilities” and “serious underlying health issues”.
Detective Superintendent Des Bray says the woman’s death is a major crime. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Police said she had been living in a home with her mother on Edinburgh Terrace but it was unclear if other people were “assisting in the care of the victim”.
Last Thursday, paramedics were called to the address after the woman fell.
She was taken to the local hospital but her condition “deteriorated” and she was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where she died on Monday.
Superintendent Bray said the house was in “squalid conditions” and “not fit for human habitation”.
“I just think for anybody in the community, it’s just terribly sad that any person could live in these conditions in 2024,” he said.
“From a government and law enforcement perspective, little is known about the family and there’s been nothing untoward that we’ve located so far but I’d just emphasised we’re only two days into it [the investigation].”
Police investigating whether the woman’s death was the result of criminal neglect. (ABC News: Isabella Carbone)
He said there were simultaneous criminal and coronial investigations into her death.
“I can say that there’s significant indicators present in the investigation at this stage of criminal neglect but it’s unclear at this stage that criminal neglect caused the death or whether the death was caused by serious underlying health issues.”
He urged anyone who had raised concerns about the woman’s care to contact police.