Rosemary Crossley

[1][2] The award-winning 1984 film Annie's Coming Out, known as Test of Love in the USA, was made about her work and life with a woman named Anne McDonald, whom she met at St Nicholas's Hospital in Melbourne in the 1970s and later brought to live with her.

[4] In 1975, Crossley was working at St. Nicholas Hospital, Carlton, Victoria, which was run by the Mental Health Authority and housed children with intellectual disabilities.

[5] Concerned that the hospital schedule accommodated inflexible staffing arrangements, rather than the needs of the children, Crossley made a submission to a Victorian committee on mental retardation.

[6][7] Crossley was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, for her services to people with severe communication impairment.

[15] Crossley defended Anna Stubblefield against charges that she had sexually assaulted a man with severe cerebral palsy, identified as D.J., by claiming that he could answer yes/no questions independently.

[19][20] Crossley had attempted to go on trips with Leonie McFarlane, another individual who has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal, to a conference about disability in another state, but her application to the Supreme Court was not successful.

[22] Additionally, it was found that Crossley helped create a false accusation of sexual assault through "Carla", who was purported to have claimed through FC that her father was abusing her.

McDonald's story went on to be made into a film titled Annie's Coming Out (also called A Test Of Love) in 1984 starring Angela Punch McGregor and directed by Gil Brealey.

At the age of three, she was placed by her parents in St. Nicholas Hospital, Melbourne, a Health Commission (government) institution for children with severe disabilities, and she lived there without education or therapy for eleven years.

In 1979, when McDonald turned eighteen, a habeas corpus action in the Supreme Court of Victoria was commenced against the Health Commission in order to win the right to leave the institution.

Widespread controversy has continued to accompany its use in the autistic population,[27] with a number of peer reviewed scientific studies have concluded that the language output attributed to the clients is directed or systematically determined by the therapists who provide facilitated assistance.