Mitchell Taylor's epilepsy medication was only for when he had repeated seizures, but his parents suspect it may have been used to control him at his group home.
Mitchell, now 33, was born with autism and an intellectual disability and later developed epilepsy.
He was in and out of group homes for 10 years.
His parents, Ros and Graham Taylor, became increasingly concerned when he began begging not to go.
"Looking back, there was just so much we didn't know," Graham said.
"I can understand how he felt like we'd robbed him of his trust in us by sending him to this place."
Mitchell's parents sent him to the group home with anticonvulsant medication, which the doctor had prescribed to be given only if he had a series of seizures.
But on at least two occasions when the Taylors picked up their son from the group home, they claim they were given empty packets of the medication, and their son could barely stand.
Graham said the group home could not confirm if he had any seizures but said he had his suspicions his son may have been "drugged" to make it easier for the group home.
"If he's sleeping through [the night], that's just one less problem to worry about," he said.
What Mitchell's parents suspect may have happened to him is referred to as a restrictive practice.
In the past three years, the number of reports of unauthorised restrictive practice has increased a five-fold – from almost 290,000 in 2019-2020, to 1.4 million in 2021-2022.
The practice aims to restrict person's rights or freedom of movement and, according to the NDIS Act 2013, should be used as a last resort.
It becomes unauthorised when it disregards behavioural plans or rules in the relevant state or territory.
Kept in a 'large cage area'
Victorian woman Dariane McLean shared the story of her son's 13-year ordeal at the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Hayden McLean, who lives with an intellectual disability, had been prescribed psychotropic drugs and kept in a "large cage area" to control his behaviour in a group home.
He began living in the group at 21 years of age.
Ms McLean hoped it would give him extra support to achieve his goals.
"Every opportunity he could get, he would break out of the home," Ms McLean said.
"On his police database, there's at least 300 missing person reports."
She said it was her son's way of begging for help. It led her to remove him from the group home.
But the trauma remains long after he left.
"He draws every day, and we can see from his drawings his trauma is huge," Ms McLean said.
"His trust for people has been obliterated."
Both Mitchell and Mr McLean's experiences happened before either had joined the NDIS.
Restrictive practices 'becoming normalised'
The Unauthorised Uses of Restrictive Practices in the National Disability Insurance Scheme report released this year shows the number of reported uses of unauthorised restrictive practices has soared year-on-year.
In 2019-2020, there were nearly 290,000 reports, compared with 1.4 million in the last financial year.
There are five different types of restrictive practices; environmental, chemical, seclusion, physical and mechanical.
The report shows chemical restraint was the most frequent practice used.
It can include doping or drugging a person to subdue their behaviour.
There were more than 671,000 cases of chemical restraint.
Antipsychotics and anticonvulsant medication were the most used medication to control a person with a disability.
Inclusion Australia CEO Catherine McAlpine said she feared many more incidents went unreported.
"We are concerned that what some service providers or support workers might think are trivial restrictive practices are becoming normalised," she said.
She said support workers might even use the "threat" of unauthorised restricted practice to control the behaviour of a person with a disability.
"Too often, people with an intellectual disability are given no voice, no choice and no control over their own lives," she said.
An NDIS Commission spokesperson said several factors had led to an increase in reports of unauthorised restrictive practice.
This includes "an increase in the number of participants and registered NDIS providers entering the NDIS", and increased compliance by providers in reporting the use of restrictive practices."
The independent NDIS commission has set a goal to reduce the number of reportable incidents by 90 per cent, of which unauthorised restrictive practices make up the vast majority.
It states in doing that, it will prioritise increased monitoring, compliance and enforcement action on providers who are not complying with legislation.
Human rights violations
Dr Piers Gooding, a disability law specialist at the University of Melbourne, said while in some cases, restrictive practices are necessary, "it is abundantly clear that there are a vast number of these unauthorised restrictive practices that very clearly involve a violation of a person's human rights."
"There might be some instances, for example, where a person with an intellectual disability is prevented by their carer from running onto a busy road when they don't understand the risk," he said.
Ms McAlpine has called for a drastic reduction in the number of restrictive practices used on people with disabilities.
"The reason that we have restrictive practices is really when people don't have the right support," she said.
"A lot of unauthorised restrictive practices happen because things are uncomfortable in the moment, and we will regard a lot of them as shortcuts, poor practice and lazy practice."
Healing from trauma
The Taylors have seen massive improvements since taking their son out of a group home.
"It all started from the belief that we can do better for Mitchell," Graham said.
But Mitchell remains traumatised, and would break down if he is ever near the group home.
"He knew where you were. He would get upset," Graham said.
"You had to reassure him; we're not going there anymore."
Mitchell now lives in his own home and receives regular visits from support workers.
"It has not been an overnight thing," Ros said.
"We can see how successful it is for Mitchell. If I could just wave a magic wand and make it successful for everybody else, that would be fabulous."
Like Mitchell, Mr McLean, who is now 43, has found a new life away from the group home and restrictive practices, living in his own rental property.
"He can now walk around in his community and a lot of people know who he is and will greet him by name," Ms McLean said.
"Prior to that, if he was out and about people would ring the police."
Ms McLean, said her son's new-found freedom is a credit to his support workers.
"Restrictive practice can only be applied when it can be shown that every other least restrictive option has been applied, and certainly in my son's case that had not happened," she said.
"We have now spent years applying the least restrictive options to help him to succeed and be out in the community."
