OUR LATEST UPDATE is Friday, 20 December 2019 (see down below)
It has been quite a while since posting our last update on the investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of Merna Aprem on the evening of 23 May 2019. However the delay is not an indication that investigations have stalled, but rather an indicator to the contrary.
I have been delayed following up on another death and I am not happy with information at hand regarding the circumstances leading up to the passing of another client. Therefore I shall delay for a short time reporting on the circumstances surrounding this new matter until further crucial details are secured.
Before I continue posting my next update in the next day or two, I should take time here to again say a HUGE thank you to all of the beautiful people who have stepped forward to assist Tanya Petrus in her quest to find out what went wrong at AFFORD that led to the death of her daughter on that evening. THANK YOU.
I am truly humbled with so many carers coming to the assistance of Ms Petrus. They have given me strength, motivation and determination to see this through to the end. Above all, the carers have shown that the carers really do care and that’s why they work as carers. Their pay is poor, the conditions and work duties are extreme to say the least, and despite this they have spoken by acts of kindness and compassion. I am listening. The carers have shown that caring is a doing word. I am still waiting for the management of AFFORD to do the same even though I have provided them with every opportunity to do so.
On the note of compassion, I would like to have a personal input here and share my favourite Youtube video that highlights the delivery of “care”. My apologies if the video is a tad long. My apologies for side tracking from the investigation to add a personal touch.This is a story about a boy who asked his father if he could run an ironman marathon. The dad said, “YES, no problem son”.
****** Update Sunday, 13 October 2019 – 2pm ******
In Part I of this blog in a letter I wrote to the CEO of AFFORD dated 18 July 2019, I put him on notice that I will be closely monitoring AFFORD’s response to this incident. See excerpt from that letter below.
“What is critical is how an organisation responds to these events”.
To those who have read Part I and Part II of this blog, I am sure that I am being more than fair by describing the AFFORD response to this tragedy as very poor given they are in the business of selling care!
In a Part II of this blog, I reported that one of the ways AFFORD has responded was to use a silencing technique by pressuring their employees to sign grubby “hush” contracts in an attempt to cover up mistakes and mishaps by preventing them from reporting or speaking to anyone, especially Ms Petrus and myself. The reader will recall I reported in relation to the “hush” agreements;
“Fortunately I could go without their input for the time being but suffice to say, I am used to these tactics and will later show how easily it is to circumvent these dodgy agreements”
I propose to now indicate a simple method how to circumvent these dodgy agreements for anyone who may be interested in providing information that might assist us in assessing the allegations that AFFORD management have been negligent in their duties and management of funds so much so that the safety and wellbeing of the AFFORD clients are at risk.
The allegations I am now investigating have snowballed from one incident, the Merna Aprem incident, to a possible 3 fatal incidents, along with allegations of systematic abuse and bullying of staff together with misuse of NDIS funding to the extent that some clients do not have enough food on their plates, there are inadequate client resources, and many staff employed have little to no training with the only draw card for their employment being cheap labour.
At this point the allegations of misuse of NDIS funding is only an allegation and I will be reporting on this very shortly and looking for evidence of this alleged misuse of spending.
Over the years I have witnessed many instances of dodgy agreements being drafted by lawyers who regard this tactic as “best practice” and in so doing justifying their fees in the many thousands of dollars.
Firstly if you examine the purpose of these dodgy agreements, you have to understand the essence of why someone (in this case AFFORD) has paid many thousands of $$ to have dodgy lawyers draft them. I make no apologies for referring to them as dodgy, because if you have produced an agreement with the intent of pressuring anyone including employees from reporting or talking about incidents that jeopardise(d) the well-being and safety of its clients, and in this case clients who for the most part cannot speak up or fend for themselves, I think in all fairness using the term “dodgy” is in fact being too kind.
The dodgy agreements in the main are characterised by a number of factors;
a) The agreements are grossly unfair for one party and overly fair for the other party.
b) In the event of a breach there is little or no penalty for one party yet the other party has a huge financial liability (such as losing their job), or agreement to a specified amount of damages, together with agreement to pay the other party’s legal fees to prosecute you for the breach.
c) Usually they mask the real reason why the agreement was put into place and are really designed to thwart a potential criminal prosecution against the party who is the one creating the agreement.
d) The party that is disadvantaged, is pressured into signing the agreement and verily believes this pressuring to sign can save them in the event of a breach, but they are wrong, and in any case have to risk many hundreds of thousands of $$ trying to nullify the agreement through the courts.
I certainly do understand the unfair pressure one can be put under to sign these agreements and also understand why they sign them, which is usually so they don’t lose their jobs so that their families don’t risk starving, not to mention the risk of losing their family home if they don’t pay the mortgage on time. Essentially the inducement to sign is overwhelming for the above reasons which for the most part are valid reasons.
But if you are in possession of information and you feel that you want to do the right thing and report it to me, please do so in the knowledge that AFFORD and their fully funded legal team can do diddly squat about it. In other words, they are powerless to enforce the agreement you signed because they have NO evidence to support their claim.
Also feel comforted that you have the law on your side because these agreements are NOT binding if they are designed to conceal a crime!
1 Do not use your mobile phone or computer/device to communicate with me if you still work at AFFORD, or have signed some kind of restricting agreement that prevents you from doing a particular act for x number of months after leaving their employ.
2 Use a friend’s computer/device, and download Cocoon browser.
3 Logon to https://protonmail.com/ and sign up for a free account using the Cocoon browser.
4 Use a fictitious name and details for the new account.
5 Create a password that you can remember and use a mix of keyboard characters like the following example: – &Aff@ord246*
6 Do NOT save the password in the browser for future use.
7 Email me at [email protected]
8 You can submit information and include names and dates of the events and DO not identify yourself.
9 After you email me the details, it is quite ok to forget your password.
10 If you need to provide further information and you have forgotten your password simply follow the steps above and create a new Protonmail account.
11 I will investigate the allegations. The more factual information the better.
Kindly note that I will shortly be addressing the issue of the misuse of AFFORD management spending. I will also be indicating the other ways I have discovered AFFORD have responded to the Merna Aprem incident and the reader can make their own conclusions regarding the appropriateness of these actions and how they align with being responsible.
****** Update Saturday, 26 October 2019 1:05 pm******
To start this latest posting I would like to follow up on some enquiries I have had regarding the earlier post where it was revealed that there have been some “allegations” that AFFORD have misused NDIS funding. I shall provide some clarity here with regards to the basis behind the allegations.
In order to commence operating a group home for the disabled, certain modifications have to be made to the building and documents also have to be lodged with relevant authorities for approval prior to commencement.
The criteria must be met otherwise approval will not be given, unless of course the self-certification process has failed which is also likely in this matter and something that will be examined. And of course if one did not obtain the required risk management plans and the like. My understanding is that an independent report (access committee report) has to be completed and paid for by the service provider besides the Epilepsy Risk Management report, the Complying Development Certificate and the other required documents including the Supported Independent Living Assessment.
The criteria to be met to provide a safe and compliant establishment should be a matter of routine if you are an experienced group home operator with over 65 years’ expertise in care (and fun).
For a service provider to be paid for services rendered, they must be a registered NDIS service provider. Documents of course have to be completed so an assessment can be made to confirm that the provider can satisfy the requirements of being able to deliver that service and thus become a registered NDIS service provider. In other words, if a client is in need of services, with such services being funded by the NDIS, a due diligence process is conducted in order for the service provider to be registered and paid for providing the service.
Of significant importance in this matter, not only does the service provider have to be a registered NDIS service provider, it is also incumbent on them to provide the service they are being paid to deliver during the specific time that they have stated they will deliver the care agreed upon.
To more suitably meet the individual needs of the client with disabilities, and provide a more personalised service, NDIS have given the client a say in how they want to spend their NDIS benefit to adequately meet their support needs.
Merna had a support coordinator, and together with her mother they formulated a plan with Merna’s specific needs incorporated into that very plan. There are 3 basic types of management plans to choose, being NDIS managed, self-managed, and plan managed (with an option to have a blend of the 3).
Merna and her supports elected for a partially self-managed plan. Basically what that means is that Merna chose a mix of the 3 basic plans and wanted NDIS to manage her Core Supports ie Merna’s supported independent living in a group home accommodating up to 5 clients was NDIA-managed.
Merna’s NDIS plan that started on 10 December 2018 was revised shortly afterwards and the revised plan commenced on 15 March 2019.
AFFORD, as a registered NDIS service provider, provided a quote for providing Merna’s Core Supports to meet this plan, and in doing so NDIS accepted this quote and to fulfil their part in the contact have agreed to pay AFFORD the sum of $189,233.85 per annum to provide these Core Supports to Merna in accordance with that plan, referred to as Merna Aprem’s NDIS Plan of 15 March 2019 (see excerpt from NDIS approval letter below)
Merna’s NDIS plan sets out the supports that the funding is to be provided for in a document called “Recommended Timetable Of Support”. In that plan it does not set out anywhere that the Core Supports are only required for the daytime. You will recall in an earlier posting on this blog we posted an excerpt from a newspaper report where AFFORD’s Ms Hailes was quoted as following;
But, Ms Hailes said, “Afford had not been made aware of Merna’s overnight seizures and, if that information had been disclosed, they would have submitted documents to the NDIS and applied for funding to properly meet those needs.”
Basically that is what Ms Hailes is saying because she knew very well that Merna’s day support workers, the ones that looked after her on a daily basis, were very professional, highly skilled and knew how to properly look after Merna.
At the time of making that statement Ms Hailes also knew that the 2 staff that took over looking after Merna on that fateful day from 4pm when the experienced staff finished their day shift were not experienced. In fact one of the staff, the one that was watching TV in the lounge room at the time had been shifted to group homes from staffing the day activities because she was well known for being lazy.
Back to the point of allegations of misusing NDIS funding, I could not find anywhere on Merna’s NDIS plan where the management of AFFORD can use the NDIS support funding to engage in fully funded regular and extravagant dinners with exquisite food, open bar, entertainment, 4.5 star hotel accommodation (sometimes interstate), followed by an alcohol drenched after party, with the staff attending such functions each being paid 4 hours pay to boot. The video earlier in the earlier posting above of the AFFORD 2019 staff awards night supports these allegations.
These parties are apparently held all around the country and held at venues such as;
The Gold Coast
Mantra Legends
Melbourne
Mantra on Russell
Sydney
Bankstown Sport Club
https://www.bankstownsports.com/
The Cargo Bar
Curzon Hall
Whilst there is nothing wrong with having lavish all expenses paid celebrations, there certainly is something wrong if you are celebrating with NDIS funding at the expense of not being able to deliver the services to the client in accordance with their NDIS plan simply because there is not enough funds to go around.
This at the present time is all speculation on my part as to the reasons why the services are not being delivered in accordance with the AFFORD quotations to provide such services, and to that end I shall be briefly examining their financial statements very soon to see if this is in fact the case.
This is the allegation that client services are not being provided because the NDIS funds are being spent on lavish parties, alcohol, transportation, accommodation and bonuses for the upper management that could otherwise have been spent to properly deliver the services they (AFFORD) are being paid to deliver. In effect the management have elected to provide the funding to care for themselves and not as promised by way of signed agreements to provide to their clients the care they require.
In this matter, I will be endeavouring to ascertain the reason why AFFORD did not adequately provide the care services to Merna in accordance with her NDIS plan at an appropriate time when the AFFORD management may not have the luxury of declining to provide answers. But this will be put to them at some future time.
The problem here of course is whatever the reason, whether it be a lack of funding, or poor management, or sheer greed, it is still unacceptable that AFFORD can receive payment for a service and not provide it in full. It’s still in breach of the contracts and agreements in place, and worse still it’s something likely to affect other clients. In case anyone has forgotten the theme of this Part III, it is “Another cover up” and this is something I will be reporting on further when sought information is at hand.
I would strongly urge all those with children and/or relatives who are receiving AFFORD services to diligently check their NDIS plans and make sure the services are being delivered, and at the times they should be delivered.
So whatever the problem is, it’s likely to continue if nothing is done to address the matter. Changing a doorknob and ripping out a bathtub is like putting a band aid on a pimple……it’s likely to pop up somewhere else and until the problem is addressed there is no solution.
The matter becomes especially sinister and peoples’ lives at risk when you do not provide the level of service that you are being paid to deliver, and rather than address the issues at hand to remedy the situation, the course of action taken is simply to say nothing and cover-up the incident as if nothing has happened. The benefits of addressing failings in the system could well justify the benefits the staff receive that include bonuses and lavish parties.
Information I have at hand indicates that the benefits of lavish parties and bonuses are a reward for being frugal at the bottom end where the clients need the services the most.
There are also allegations of bullying and intimidation of staff, together with denying them work shifts, if they voice their concerns about the services not being delivered to the clients as they should be. It is alleged the same applies if staff voice their concerns about numerous clients being with only 1 carer to care for them and not in accordance with the correct ratio of client to staff.
Some clients, it is alleged, have to sit in sanitary pads in over 40 degree heat for many hours. The same applies to clients with soiled clothing having to sit in it for many hours.
If the organisation does not have enough funding to buy an approved safe doorknob on a bathroom door that houses disabled residents, it will be interesting to find out how they can justify the huge expense for lavish parties and the like.
Reports indicate that AFFORD provides funding every fortnight for what are termed “buzz nights”. A buzz night is where the team leader is allocated $40/fortnight for each staff member in their team. A consensus is taken to see who in the group will be attending the buzz night and then the appropriate amount at the rate of $40/staff/fortnight is credited into the team leader’s petty cash credit card.
However, if say only 10 or 15 attend out of 90 staff, then the team leader still spends the funding for say 65 staff who the team leader earlier nominated was going to attend, and then has a wowser of a time until the $2,600 has been fully expended, fully funded by AFFORD.
Reports indicate that alcohol abuse is rife in the management of AFFORD with beer being freely available in the head office, and maintaining the fridge stacked with beer a priority.
On occasion the team leader and district manager have organised the buzz night on the premises at the AFFORD Canley Vale centre after hours. On one occasion a band was engaged and large deliveries of alcohol were made to the premises for the party estimated to be for 50 or so staff members. But only about 10 to 15 staff turned up. Allegedly some drinks were left in the Sensory Room and found the following day. The remaining unconsumed alcohol was taken back to the team leader’s home.
So given the allegations in some cases of lack of food on the client’s plates, lack of resources and often being grossly short staffed at critical times, carers working overtime and not being paid, and as evidenced in the Merna Aprem case, a gross lacking in the management of the cheap labour hired to deliver care to the AFFORD clients, I am wondering how this could be so when there is evidence at the management level of an abundance of food, alcohol and parting in the same charitable organisation.
I am receiving reports that include the following;
The reason why I am going into great details about this aspect is simply because when you have a management team whose primary focus is rewarding themselves with alcohol, fine food and exquisite parties all around the country for diligently working to acquire more clients with NDIS funding, and there is a lack of care provided to their clients, you have a huge problem with accidents waiting to happen.
On the subject of partying and not providing services to clients as promised, please refer to the following excerpts taken from Merna’s NDIS plans for which AFFORD provided quotations to deliver the services required by Merna. The quotations were accepted and AFFORD was paid to provide the services in the sum as shown below.
The specific services that Merna wanted AFFORD to provide to her that were NDIA managed, as per Merna’s NDIS plan of 15 March 2019, that AFFORD agreed in writing to provide to Merna 7 days per week from 7:30am to 9:00am in the morning and from 4:00pm to 8:30pm in the evening were as follows
It is evident that Merna identified the essential care she needed. She then sought, and was granted funding from NDIS, to purchase this care from AFFORD for the specific reason, as Merna says,
“…..but need supervision and prompting with my personal care tasks, as I can have seizures.“
I am certain that AFFORD management will get the opportunity to provide an explanation as to why they invoiced NDIS for payment, yet failed to deliver the care to Merna that they were being paid for.
I am sure that the management of AFFORD would have seen the following diagram, or the contents therein, and I am certain that they will have an opportunity to explain why they rostered on staff who most likely did not have an understanding of Merna’s care needs, nor did they know how to suitably deliver that care when it was most needed. I understand that other more experienced staff were available to choose from when one staff member reported in sick for her shift that afternoon/evening in question.
****** Updated Friday, 20 December 2019 10:30am ******
Recently AFFORD released their 2019 annual report. You can read it by following the link below.
https://www.afford.com.au/app/uploads/2019/10/104003_Afford_Annual_Report_2019_v13.2.pdf
An excerpt from the 2019 Annual Report follows;
In light of several serious issues this year alone, my interpretation of the report is that it presents nothing more than a contrived marketing tool and does not reflect a true and accurate account of the organisation with regards to the delivery of care, which is the core business.
The report is enticing and said to be a snapshot. There are loads of smiley faces and some somewhat disingenuous script indicating Afford would be a better choice than Disneyland.
I did not find any literature in the report indicating how AFFORD dealt with reducing the anguish many clients have had no choice but to endure, and daily, resultant from a lack of genuine care and refusal to allocate appropriate staffing numbers and resources.
There were no pictures in the report showing the frustration and distress on the faces of the carers when they were bullied and ostracised for voicing their concerns about clients welfare and safety?
There was no mention of the highly skilled disability carer, and former aged carer, who was sacked for sharing the link to this blog. Where was the care for her and children and the clients whom were bonded to her?
I could not find any stats showing the number of disappointed employees who left AFFORD this year.
Understandably in the report, there were no pictures of the family, former school friends or carers at Merna’s funeral. The absence of an explanation offering existing clients and their family some reassurance that grave client safety issues within the organisation have been suitably dealt with, undermined the sincerity of the report.
Of apparent importance, it was noted that the chairman proffered a 35% growth in size on the back of unwavering commitment to deliver exceptionally high-quality support to clients.
The truth of the matter is that this growth was attributed to the unwavering commitment of resources to advertising and marketing promotions supported by misleading promotional material, as depicted in the 2019 Annual Report.
A glossy picture of a smiling client standing on an old broken surfboard in a child’s sandpit does nothing to assure parents or relatives of clients and potential clients that their loved ones are adequately cared for and safe, but it does acres to entice prospective clients bearing large NDIS packages, as the chairman’s touted 35% increase will testify. I can assure the reader that I am not the only one who would like to ask the chairman if client safety and care is being compromised to fund the purchase of the new homes.
The chairman’s report stated that the acquisition of 28 more properties was astounding!
I would not disagree with the chairman’s assessment that it was an outstanding result, had the following conditions also been met:
- that all 28 properties meet Australian Standards. (with regards to Access for the Disabled)
- that the care to be delivered to the residents of those 28 properties was following their NDIS plans
This is the very care AFFORD were being paid to perform, and so widely promoted as being of the highest quality.
It would also be astounding if the chairman could provide some assurances that all other group homes and properties owned or managed by AFFORD complied with the Australian Standards, again to avoid a repeat of Merna’s incident.
I had a look on the AFFORD website, and it shows that other AFFORD homes do NOT meet the Australian Standards with their fit-out and locking mechanisms. See pictures below;
.
On the topic of AFFORD delivering the highest quality support on offer and genuine care, where was this genuine care for one young female client when she was writhing in extreme pain earlier this year, in the 2019 reporting period?
Your guess is as good as mine, but we do know for a fact that it was nowhere to be found when it was needed most by that client, not even in head office.
After speaking directly with a parent, I can now confirm that a red flag situation arose earlier this year with their daughter. The young woman who was in day program, and was in extreme pain and when the carer called the AFFORD supervisor under safety protocol asking for an ambulance to be called, the carer was told NOT to call an ambulance and was instead directed to take the client home and leave her at the residence, even though no one was at home. This is unbelievable and unacceptable.
I am at a total loss to understand how instructing the carer NOT to call an ambulance when a young woman and client is writhing in pain, and then telling the carer to drop her to an unattended home in preference to an emergency ward at a hospital, accords in any shape or form with the advertised promotional material. This is NOT the highest quality support on offer. This statement is false and misleading.
What would be the position if this young female client died? Would the highly respected lawyers rush in and have the carers and everyone involved sign confidentiality agreements and face being sacked or assigned minimal shifts if they refused? Would the EMR (Electronic Medical Report) be a creation to reflect an untrue account of the incident? Would there be reports in the media by AFFORD staff falsely laying blame elsewhere? What would the management of AFFORD to tell the parents?
I can now tell you that this young female client did die. Disturbingly she died on the night of that very same day she was writhing in pain. I can also report that the parents and family knew nothing of this until I spoke to them.
If anyone has any knowledge of this incident and can let me know the name of the carer involved, please contact me ASAP ph 0410 270 817
2 thoughts on “Part III -Another cover up”
It clearly states Merna has seizures in her plan it is irrelevant that Afford use the excuse “they did not know of seizures at night” it does not matter whether seizures normally occurr as a seizure is a seizure and a person has to be seizure free for at least 2 yrs to be deemed safe so Afford are negligent they have no common sense and if they were ill equipped to take on Mernas care they should have declined.They didn’t and took on their duty of care in which they now have derelicted their duty of care causing a death. Full stop. No excuse as it is known that water is danger with people with epilepsy and 2cm of water can drown someone. They need to be accountable the grief they have put a mother through. Merna depended on this organization to protect and be responsible they FAILED
Hi Bronwyn…..I am glad you, like everyone else, can see and understand what is written in Merna’s plan. The truth is always the best serum and by choosing a lame excuse, the one you pointed out about night seizures, one I might add no one believes, not even them, shows a level of arrogance and clearly a mindset that does not care in any shape or form. The response provided by AFFORD also clearly indicates a willingness to mislead, which alone, is a very worrying trait for the organisation that our weak and vulnerable are relying upon for their survival. Thank you for your input, and my sincere apologies for a delay in posting a response. I did not forget, but was overwhelmed with meetings today.