Willow Court Centre – Willow Court Tasmania

Ree Pettifer

CLICK HERE to find the latest upload. The Ree Pettifer report is now on our articles page. Although some sections are missing this is still an enlightening outsiders review and is a great read of conditions, staffing arrangements and facilities at Willow Court Centre.

“It would be easy to lay the blame on the nursing staff for the living conditions and standards of care of residents at Willow Court Centre. To do so however would be to over simplify the forces at play in the working life of the nursing staff at Willow Court.”

“The most disconcerting and most strongly held of all opinions was that of covert and overt victimisation of those who dare to question or speak out. Sudden changes to night shift, to an area of high dependency, a pass opposite to one’s spouse or unfavourable staff appraisals were frequently nominated as acts of covert victimisation.

Abusive telephone calls, threats of violence against staff and their families were also frequently reported and can be personally verified by the writer”.

“In one house toothbrushes were stored communally in jugs of water with the bristles submerged and the names on toothbrushes were illegible. In one house six toothbrushes stored in a communal container had obviously never been used and had accumulated dust overtime”.

Ree Pettifer September 1989

Article from the Sunday Tasmanian 25-10-1987

February 12, 2014 No Comments

This dual article writes about Ken and his hopes and dreams of leaving the Willow Court Centre as well as expressing his mixed feelings of leaving his home for the last 13 years. Ken’s journey and experience was not unlike the many residents that started the de-institutionalisation process that took another 13 years to complete.

The second part of this article quotes Royal Derwent Hospital’s Administrator, Mr Grant Lennox announcing that he expected the majority of the Centre’s 300 residents to eventually live in the community houses.

At the time this lead to much anxiety among staff and families who were concerned for their own situations and those of the residents and family members they knew so well.