New report highlights experiences of disabled people and people with neurodiversity in care

Easy Read:Tell Me About You Research Report Easy Read [PDF]
Plain Text:Tell Me About You Research Report Plain Text [Word doc]
Braille:Tell Me About You Research Report Braille version
Audio: Audio recordings of the research report are available on the DBI website Tell Me About You page.
Report:Tell Me About You Research Report [PDF]

The Donald Beasley Institute (DBI) has released a research report, Tell Me About You, which provides unique insight into the lives of people with learning disabilities and neurodiversity, in State and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.

Tell Me About You is a collection of 16 stories of abuse survivors’ experiences in State and faith-based institutional care. It includes life stories told by disabled and neurodiverse storytellers, who describe abuse and violence that was both blatant and overt as well as subtle and covert.

The report concludes that “From survivor testimony, it is clear the systems put in place by the State to support and protect children and young people, categorically failed them ‒ repeatedly and catastrophically – constituting systemic abuse.”

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care asked DBI to do this work when it was recognised that there needed to be a range of ways for people with learning disabilities and neurodiversity to share their experiences. Tell Me About You takes a life story approach to understanding the experiences of survivors, referred to as ‘storytellers’. For many of the report’s storytellers, this was the first time anyone had asked them about their lives.

For more information visit the Tell Me About You webpage.