Roughly $1 million in federal funding was cut from support services for ACT carers last month, adding to what advocates say is a crippling level of pressure leading some to threaten self-harm. On Monday, a former support worker broke her silence about using rope to restrain a woman with a severe intellectual disability, at the insistence of the client’s mother, who was “a wonderful woman pushed to the absolute edge of carer stress”. The woman was tied up for 30 minutes at a time, with her hands held high above her head by ropes attached to the roof. “I am not a monster, but that role turned me into one,” the former Kincare support worker said. The ACT government said on Wednesday that the newly created Human Services Registrar, which regulates specialist disability service providers, would speak with Kincare about the allegations, and refer them to ACT police “if appropriate”. A spokesman for Disability Minister Chris Bourke said the government had not previously been made aware of such allegations.
