Alberta office that investigates abuse in care stopped publishing outcomes as cases piled up | CBC News (2024)

Madeleine Cummings · CBC News

· Posted: Feb 10, 2024 9:00 AM EST | Last Updated: February 10

Critics are questioning the operations and transparency of an Alberta office that investigates allegations of abuse against people receiving publicly funded care.

The Protection for Persons in Care (PPC) program within Alberta Health investigates allegations of abuse against vulnerable adults receiving publicly funded care or support services from hospitals, nursing homes, seniors' lodges, mental health facilities, shelters, group homes, addictions treatment centres, supportive living facilities and programs for persons with developmental disabilities.

EngageFirst Management Consultants reviewed the PPC program for Alberta Health and created a final report with 17 recommendations on Aug. 7, 2022.

All of the recommendations and much of the report, which CBC News obtained through a freedom of information request, were redacted under legislation that exempts public bodies from disclosing information that reveals advice, proposals, recommendations, analyses or policy options.

But some of the report's contents were provided.

According to the document's executive summary, the last decade of the program has been "quite eventful," with "changes in staff, leadership,and program practices, and an accumulation of open files from several years past waiting for the director's decision."

The report says based on data from 2016-21, people who brought allegations to the office were waiting an average of two-and-a-half years for a decision.

Terry Price, the chair of the seniors task force for Public Interest Alberta, gasped when she learned that people waited that long for decisions.

"Two-and-a-half years is absolutely unacceptable," Price said in an interview with CBC News.

For the most part, abuse reports are submitted by people representing adults, such as family members and friends,the report explains.

The report says the consultants approached the review with a goal of "creating a program that can deliver timely decisions, in order to provide closure to the families and the adults who have alleged abuse."

Outcomes no longer published

The provincial government used to publish annual statistical reports and decision summaries for the PPC program, but none have been posted online after the 2019-20 fiscal year.

CBC News obtained statistics about the program and decision summaries for the last threefiscal years through freedom of information requests.

The documents show there were 213 reports of abuse containing 264 allegations submittedin those threeyears. Reports can contain more than one abuse allegation.

When someone complains to the program, a complaints officer decides if an investigation is needed.

Independent, contracted investigators review files, conduct interviewsand submit a report to the PPC director, who makes a decision and may tell the service provider or to follow certain instructions to prevent abuse in the future.

Of the 327 decisions on allegations rendered in the last three years, 34 per cent were determined to be "founded," the remainder were determined to be unfounded.

The majority of abuse allegations reported during those two years related to failures to provide necessities of life.

Some of the founded allegations of abuse by care providers include:

• Failing to monitor the temperature of bath water, with a client developing serious burns
• Failing to assess and monitor a client's fluid intake
• Manoeuvring a client's wheelchair with the client's foot dragging on the floor, leading to the client being diagnosed with a fracture
• Hitting clients
• Failing to provide a client with their medication in a timely manner, with the client being treated in hospital for the severe infection that developed as a result
• Refusing to change a client's wet bedding
• Force-feeding a client while mocking and telling them to eat

Price described the founded allegations as "absolutely frightening" and said the public has a right to hear about them.

Edmonton resident Nejolla Korris, who said she reported a complaint about her mother's care in 2020 that the director determined to be unfounded, also said the public posting of decision summaries and program reviewsneeds to be resumed.

Upset with the outcome in her case, she went through the summaries from previous years to see how many allegations were associated with different facilities.

"We need tools as stewards of our loved ones to be able to research what is good and what might not meet our needs," she said.

Decision summaries show directives service providers must follow — such as providing more training or revising orientation procedures — as well as whether they have followed those directives.

The government's own website says the annual reports and decision summaries "help promote transparency and increase public awareness of the service provider's accountability."

Spokesperson Andrew Livingstone told CBC News in an email that Alberta Health recognizes the delay in public reporting and is working to bring the reports up to date.

Response to review

The consultants' report on the PPC program says the recommendations will have a "profound impact" on the program and include "changes to the methods of resolution, systems, policies and procedures, processes, structures, staffing and other aspects of the program architecture."

Livingstone said Alberta Health has been hiring more resources, redistributing staff responsibilities to enable the director to focus on reviewing cases, and adding investigators to the PPC unit's roster.

"The recommendations are part of an internal continuous improvement process aiming to improve service delivery by reviewing the Protection of Persons in Care Act and regulations to strengthen Alberta Health's ability to protect vulnerable Albertans," Livingstone said.

He said Alberta Health has been implementing the recommendations since the report was done and most have target completion dates in the summer and fall of this year.

Legislation needs changes: MLA

Before Marie Renaud became the NDP MLA for St. Albert, she worked as the executive director of the LoSeCa Foundation, a non-profit that houses and supports adults withdisabilities.

In that role, she said, she experienced the PPC process, spoke to investigators, and found the decisions helpful.

She said the program's legislation should be amended because it doesn't currentlyapply to adults with family-managed support contracts.

She also saidthe public should have access to even more information about care facilities and abuse allegations.

"There certainly isn't a Better Business Bureau for them, so there has to be a place that people can go to get the honest truth about what has happened," she said.

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