Rape at care homes alleged
By NICK MCKENZIE
September 24, 2009
VULNERABLE women in state-monitored care homes are reportedly being raped and are trading sex for cigarettes and money in cases that highlight years of neglect and inaction by the State Government, according to its own watchdog.
The Public Advocate, Colleen Pearce, says Victorians would feel ''ashamed'' if they visited some Government-monitored private nursing homes.
''We have left vulnerable Victorians without support. It is a shameful situation,'' said Ms Pearce, who was appointed in 2007 to protect the rights of the disabled and vulnerable.
Ms Pearce said she had decided to speak out to highlight years of Government inaction over reports from Office of the Public Advocate monitors about conditions facing mentally ill, disabled and elderly residents of state-supported accommodation.
She said there was particular concern about women in so-called supported residential services. ''When you have got women who need to get basic necessities, they will often provide sexual favours to get them and then feel really abused by that. It is not uncommon for us to hear about women either trading cigarettes for sex or else being raped.''
A second Office of the Public Advocate report states that supported-accommodation monitors found ''that the physical environments of the visited facilities are substandard''.
Ms Pearce told The Age: ''We are seeing a deterioration in the well-being of many of the residents over a period of time. They are people we may have visited as community visitors or we may have under guardianship.
''It is the deterioration of the physical and mental welfare of these human beings that drives us to knock at the Government door and to try and get the system reviewed.''
Abridged
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