“DID WE NOT LEARN FROM THE DEATH OF ANN MARIE?”

Did we not learn from the tragic death of Ann Marie Smith?

In 2020, the disability community was rock to its core by the death of Ann Marie Smith. Ann Marie was an NDIS Participant who lived in South Australia. She lived with Cerebral Palsy and died 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.

Ms Smith'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.

Despite this, deaths on the NDIS’S watch are still happening.

Tegan Fredericks, 26, died in late October this year, after being found with "open wounds and sores" and living in "squalid conditions" in South Australia's far north.

Tegan, who lived with significant disabilities, was found living in squalid conditions by Paramedics in her Port Augusta home.

South Australian Police are currently investigating whether Tegan’s death was a result of criminal neglect.

Her death has been likened to the death of Ann Marie.

Police said they had been unable to identify a current care plan for Ms Fredericks, who was not an NDIS participant but "would have been an ideal person to be under the NDIS".

Why wasn’t someone who had significant disabilities, receiving NDIS funding?

Speaking in Adelaide today, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten confirmed that Ms Fredericks's case had been raised with NDIS authorities.

"As I understand … in 2017, there was an initial expression of interest to be on the scheme, then documentation was sent back, and then nothing more was ever heard," he said.

"I don't know what the system was in 2017. We do follow up and we do go back to people but at the end of the day if someone doesn't want to persist with an application, you're not going to make them.

"It's not compulsory to be on the NDIS."

Mr Shorten described Ms Fredericks's case as "tragic", and said it was unclear if "anything could have been done to avoid this death".

"It's an extreme case and I also am concerned, and it might be rare but that doesn't make it acceptable," he said.

South Australian Human Services Minister Nat Cook said state government agencies had been "reviewing contact and service records" to check whether Ms Fredericks's case had been raised with them.

"With regard to my own agency, I am advised that Ms Fredericks was not a client of the Department of Human Services and to the best of our knowledge was not a client of any organisation funded by the Department of Human Services," she told parliament.

Ms Cook said a report had been made with SA Health's Adult Safeguarding Unit after Ms Fredericks was admitted to the Port Augusta Hospital last week, and "my office was notified by the department on the day that that report happened".

"There's a clear expectation that agencies will continue to review their records for any relevant contacts or interactions while cooperating fully with police, coronial or other investigations," she said.

How many people with disabilities have to die , before something is done about this?

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.

"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."

SA Police Minister Dan Cregan said the matter would likely be the subject of a coronial investigation, but he cautioned against comparing the death of Ms Fredericks with other cases.

"It wouldn't be right to make those comparisons that have been suggested by others until these investigations are complete," he said.

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."

Surely we can do better, when it comes to protecting some of the most vulnerable people in our society?