Hi Kerry……it’s a very interesting concept you bring up regarding making money because that is the corporate image projected when you look a little deeper. The business unfortunately is not a bank, or entertainment promotions company, it’s a company being heavily funded to look after those lovely people who were born with disabilities such that they have to rely upon others for support and care. When I last checked it was a non-for-profit registered business with something like net assets reported of $69,531,759 in 2018 with employee benefits combined with superannuation totaling $42.35m. I am waiting for the 2019 figures to be filed and made public very soon. So it seems there is this machine, supported by the board (the very ones appointed to ensure accountability) whose focus is on rewarding themselves with bonuses and lavish parties under the guise that they have to do this to make money. But HELLO, what about the very people in need of care? What about the low paid care workers who are being bullied, and breaking their backs day in day out changing soiled clients. Why don’t these people need the bonuses and lavish parties? I am not your average investigator that was trained in the police force or military. I came from the school of hard knocks where success was the reward gained from caring and looking after people. I’ll call it like it is. It is not all about $$. We are seeing this with our beloved diggers, who if they survived, were of no further use and more often than not left on the scrap heap. I’ve seen this too with my own eyes….a member of our armed forces being severely injured on a warship collision had to fight the government’s lawyers for 6 long years to get a dime compensation, meanwhile the doctors and lawyers were all paid. When you have a system in place where those controlling the purse strings are rewarding themselves for doing what they are paid to do, at the expense of all those doing the hard yards…..there is something seriously wrong!!!

Thank you Kerry for bringing to our attention the very important issue of management here. I strongly suspect the management are largely to blame here and that is why they are going to great lengths to cover up this tragic incident, to save their own asses.

When AFFORD advertise for Team Leaders it is interesting to note they require from the candidate in relation to care – “Experience in working with clients with varied needs”.

When AFFORD advertises for an Events Coordinator they require from the candidate – “The Events coordinator will be a highly important part of our business and we require someone with a high level of attention to detail and a passion for delivering high quality events.”

When Steve arrived he brought staff across from his previous workplace who followed his bullying ways and staff were forced to leave due to not being heard or appreciated for their knowledge in knowing our clients and their families and what was best practice.
It was like Steve felt threatened by the staff that knew what he was doing was wrong and he worked on making sure they would be dismissed for standing up.
Steve will say this himself he came to AFFORD to make money for the company it is not about the clients

For all of us that left we all said the day will come when someone is going to expose this man for his actions and how he treats people and expose his lies, he will protect himself at any length

You are right in saying staff were possibly on their phone as I have ran into staff that were there when I worked there and many have told me the new staff that were hired after I left lay on the lounge frequently with headphones on with their phone. They treat the workplace like home and are not accountable by management for their actions and the impact this has on the clients

I hope through this investigation it prevents another family going through what Ms Petrus has gone through and she so deserves to know the full truth about her precious daughter Merna

Ahahahaha….yes it was sterling performance…..TJ

Dear Sleeze…your input has been echoed many times by the reports i am getting from others in private but I do thank you for posting it on the public forum.

Unfortunately I will be revealing some more disturbing incidents shortly. I will also be addressing the important issues you raised regarding the allocation of funds for spending, and more importantly the issue of the many carers being prevented from delivering the care needed for client comfort and well being because they are too scared to speak up about issues for fear of being punished one way or another or bullied. I will addressing in a separate blog the spending issues, including the noticeable corporate structure of an alleged non for profit organisation where it is evident the focus is on acquiring new highly funded clients instead of their core business of acquiring funds on the back of delivering care. It is interesting the huge cracks in that organisation are being exposed more and more. I was hopeful this incident was a one off and I would only be hearing positive reports about the company along the lines promoted on their website and contained in their literature. Sad to say this is not the case. I do thank you for you input and rest assured this fight for justice is also a fight for all of the wonderful carers who are too frighted to speak up because of repercussions. This is about bringing change and delivering care to those who most need it, along with introducing accountability and eliminating cover ups. The carers are showing that they really care and are rapidly banding together. Nothing will stop them

Hi Bronwyn…..you raise some interesting points and I take on board what you say about the possibility of not screening their workers well enough. I certainly will be following up on this point too. I vaguely recall something about John Travolta’s son and will look this case up with much interest. Thanks for pointing this out.The door knob is questionable as you say, along with a whole host of other things, including the way AFFORD are handling the matter, or as some would rather say, mishandling the matter. If the door knob was a problem, then how did this door knob evade all of the processes put in place to check on these sorts of problems? I can tell you that this was not the only AFFORD home with similar door knob and therefore other homes have also evaded checking process too. I will be able to obtain all of this information in due course. Thx so much for your contribution Bronwyn

Dear Anon….thank you for comments and for raising a very good point…if there was an attempted cover up here, there might well be other cover ups too. Hopefully not but you never know. If any readers have some info here please let me know even if you do it anonymously, I would appreciate the input. I will be following this up tho. Thank you