Children with autism and intellectual disabilities have been unlawfully pinned to the ground, facedown by up to six workers as part of a controversial therapy funded by the NDIS.

Eighteen children took part in the “Severe Behaviour Program” at Irabina Autism Services in Melbourne.

The program involved children spending hours with staff in small, padded, windowless rooms as part of a therapy imported from the US. Each room had a camera and an observation room with a one-way mirror to allow others to observe the treatment.

Whistleblowers have told Four Corners that children, believed to be mostly aged between 10 and 14, were restrained by staff when they had “uncontrolled behaviours”.

They say workers would put on helmets and sometimes other protective gear before entering the room.

Four Corners has obtained shocking video which shows how one teenage boy with autism and a severe intellectual disability was treated.

The video shows the boy, who is non-verbal, sitting on a mat in the middle of the padded room. It is believed he has had a so-called “uncontrolled behaviour” which is why there are multiple workers around him.

When he attempts to move, six workers wearing protective headgear, some with gloves, rush over to him.

The teenager is crying out in distress.

They then surround the boy.

“We need to be calm for five minutes,” a worker tells him. “That means not hurting us or yourself.”

“In five minutes you can get some Nurofen.”

He is able to stay still for three and a half minutes before he moves.

Six workers bring him to the ground and pin him facedown for just over seven minutes, with other staff coming in during that time to substitute for each other.

At the end of it, the boy is told he can go home. A staff member asks him for a high five as he leaves the room, before another offers him his painkillers.

A subsequent independent report obtained by Four Corners found the practices are unlawful and in breach of the state’s human rights charter.

The report said this type of restraint “would be oppressive, frightening or intimidating” for any person.

The reviewers found the teenager was subject to this treatment 10 or more times within a 17-month period.

The use of any practice that restrains someone living with a disability is regulated in Victoria by the Senior Practitioner.

After being shown the video by Four Corners, former Victorian Senior Practitioner Frank Lambrick described it as “shocking”.

He said the methods used in the video were “unlawful” and “abuse”.

“The prone restraint is probably the most riskiest of the prohibited restraints because it involves forcing a person to lie down, therefore putting pressure on internal organs.”

“I’m quite disturbed.”

The family of the boy in the video has never been informed by Irabina nor the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission that his treatment was unlawful. Four Corners asked the commission if it has informed all the families who took part in the program but it did not respond to the question.

The practices came to light after a three-month crowdsourced investigation into the NDIS by Four Corners that heard from hundreds of participants, families and workers, about their experiences.

‘So horrific and so traumatic’

Jadon Chard loves video games and playing with toy trains. His mum Petra said his personality is infectious, and “everyone falls in love with him”.

Jadon is autistic, has an intellectual disability and ADHD. He started the Severe Behaviour Program in 2020 after some of his behaviours became difficult for his family to manage.

The then 14-year-old attended six hours a day, five days a week, for more than a year.

Petra said the padded gear and helmets staff would put on was “completely over the top, totally unproportionate to the risk”.

Most of Jadon’s treatment took place at Irabina but it eventually transferred to the family home. Petra saw Jadon being asked to comply with instructions, like to brush his teeth, over and over again. She was so disturbed by his treatment, she filmed it.

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In one video, two workers with “Severe Behaviour” emblazoned on their shirts, are trying to get Jadon to sit in the middle of the room.

When he tries to escape the room, they block his path, and then force him to the ground.

He’s screaming.

Even though he’s still on the floor, when Jadon moves slightly from the centre of the room, the men force him back.

In another video, when he won’t sit on a cushion, the workers push him across the room as he screams.

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“They would just repeat over and over to, ‘Move into the centre of the room, or we will move you,'” Petra said.

“If he didn’t move, they would physically move him, even if he was shouting and screaming at them to stop.

“It was so disgraceful and so horrific and so traumatic and so wrong.”

Petra says she didn’t see any improvement in Jadon’s behaviour.

The Severe Behaviour Program purported to be based on a model used in the United States and was a type of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy.

ABA therapy varies, but it essentially aims to reduce behaviours of concern through repetitive exercises.

The US centre which offers the practice says on its website the therapy runs for an average of three months. Some children in the Irabina program attended for more than a year.

The program had been given ongoing funding by the NDIS. Jadon’s treatment alone cost taxpayers $500,000 for 12 months.

The program was a financial win for Irabina, with the not-for-profit’s turnover going from $7 million in 2019 to $14 million in 2021.

‘What’s supposed to be therapy is actually abuse’

Former Irabina staff said the program was hidden from workers who didn’t have direct involvement with it, and that people who did speak out were ignored.

“There were so many people that came forward,” former Irabina chief operating officer Mel Webster said.

“They said they didn’t agree with the program, they didn’t agree with what they were seeing, but they didn’t feel heard.”

Ms Webster is speaking publicly for the first time. She blew the whistle on the program in 2021 when she discovered critical incident reports detailing how children were restrained.

“There were children that were held down, children that were secluded and restrained really significantly. And in some cases … staff were secluding and just, you know, restraining children.”

“I know that the children needed a high level of support but nobody … should be in a situation where they’re having what’s supposed to be therapy which is actually abuse.”

Ms Webster alerted the regulator, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, about what was happening there.

NDIS Commissioner Tracy Mackey said her office stopped the prohibited practices in August 2021.

“I’ve seen some of the footage and it is deeply concerning and that’s why staff took action immediately to make sure that participants were safe and the practice ceased,” she said.

The commission organised retraining of staff but despite the serious breach of human rights, it did not fine Irabina or make its findings public.

“There are a range of actions that we can take with any provider and shutting down that particular service and ensuring that that program was not operating anymore, was the decision that the commission made at that time,” the commissioner said.

The NDIS Commission said it was aware of concerns over Irabina’s use of restrictive practices as early as 2019. It said it worked with the Victorian government to “address the issues that had been identified” and review Irabina’s “model of support”.

Despite the Severe Behaviour Program shutting down in 2021, the office of the Victorian Senior Practitioner found other unauthorised restrictive practices were still being used at Irabina as late as April last year. It says it reported them to the NDIS Commission.

Four Corners has asked both the office of the Victorian Senior Practitioner and the NDIS Commission for details about what unauthorised restrictive practices had remained in place for another eight months after the Severe Behaviour Program closed but neither would respond to our direct questions.

“The NDIS did nothing. They should have known,” Petra said.

“They should never have allowed it to happen. Yet it went for … years.”