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Thursday 30 September 2010

News report: "Mother branded mentally ill after complaint"

Louise Hall

Sydney Morning Herald, September 30, 2010

.A mother who raised serious concerns about the care of her intellectually disabled daughter at a group home was taken to the Guardianship Tribunal where the state government tried to strip her parental rights.

Documents obtained under freedom of information show disability bureaucrats tried to portray the mother as mentally ill and unfit to make decisions about her daughter, then 19.

The mother, staff at her daughter's special school and her psychiatrist had made complaints that Lifestyle Solutions, the government-funded non-profit organisation that ran the Sutherland Shire group home, was failing to follow treatment plans, had untrained and inexperienced staff, and used psychotropic medication on residents without consent.

''As a parent you're fearful of making complaints and you can see what happened to me once I did,'' the mother said. ''I was viewed as a nuisance and troublemaker because I asked questions about my daughter's care ....."   Read on, and learn about the Guardianship Tribunal's decision here.

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