An Adelaide man living with a disability did not receive any care from his support workers for 45 hours and that problems within the organisation likely contributed to his death, a coronial inquest has heard.
Colin Norman, who liked to be known as Joe Cool, was found dead on his bedroom floor next to his wheelchair in January 2018.
The 66-year-old — who drank about three litres of alcohol a day — died from chronic alcoholism according to a post-mortem.
But the coronial inquest into his death heard police believed Mr Norman had fallen while trying to get out of bed and into his wheelchair
The coroner was told the man had bruises and abrasions on his body, which were likely from a fall.
Counsel assisting the coroner Emma Roper, told the inquest Mr Norman was meant to have support workers visit morning and night through provider HomeCare+, but he had not received any care for nearly two days.
She said a support worker had arrived for his shift on Saturday morning and was asked to leave by Mr Norman.
The inquest heard that support worker called HomeCare+ and was advised it was a client's right to refuse a service and left.
The support workers rostered on Saturday night and Sunday morning both failed to show.
"Regrettably by the time (the support worker) arrived for the Sunday evening shift, Mr Norman was already deceased," she told the inquest.
"It had been 33 hours since anyone from HomeCare+ had seen Mr Norman alive.
"It had been 45 hours since Mr Norman had received any care."
Care provider to be examined
Mr Norman suffered a traumatic brain injury 34 years before he died.
He lived alone in a housing trust property but received funding for support workers through HomeCare+ to visit twice a day to assist him with daily tasks, including getting in and out of bed, personal care, meal preparation and cleaning.
HomeCare+ is a service provided by ParaQuadSA.
Ms Roper said the inquest would examine the adequacy of the processes HomeCare+ had in place to deliver care to Mr Norman.
"The court will consider how it came to be that Mr Norman did not receive any care for a period of 45 hours in circumstances where funding for regular twice daily care had been provided," she said.
"And whether the provision of that care might have prevented his death.
"It is anticipated that the evidence will show that problems occurred at HomeCare+ and that these problems impacted on the care of Mr Norman and in turn the cause of his death."
The inquest is also expected to probe whether HomeCare+ had adequate policies and procedures in place to ensure support workers knew their rosters, actually attended their scheduled shifts and provided care in accordance with their duties.
"It appears that there was no official procedure in place to guide staff about what ought to have been done if a client refused a provision of care," Ms Roper told the inquest.
Mr Roper said the inquest would also investigate whether HomeCare+ took appropriate steps to investigate why a client had refused a shift.
Support worker gives evidence
One of Mr Norman's disability support workers, Jonathon Sutton, told the inquest it would have been "very difficult" and "dangerous" for Mr Norman to try and get from his wheelchair into bed by himself.
The HomeCare+ employee also told the inquest he was one of few disability support workers Mr Norman actually liked and that Mr Norman would "quite frequently" ask support workers to leave.
"There were certain people he really didn't want," Mr Sutton told the inquest.
Mr Sutton told the inquest Mr Norman had the capacity to make decisions about his care and support workers and should have had a say in who his support workers were.
He told the inquest he never reported to his managers that Mr Norman disliked some of his support workers because he "hated pretty much everyone" and Mr Sutton thought "it was just a drunken rant".
Mr Sutton also told the inquest that there was no "formal" procedure in place on what to do if Mr Norman did ask a support worker to leave.
"I understood it to be we'd go out, we'd come back and see if he'd calmed down and then continue on with the shift," he told the inquest.
The inquest also heard Mr Norman's brother had died, he had become estranged from his sister and he "did not socialise outside his disability support workers".
The inquest before State Coroner David Whittle continues.
