Curateur public - A father stops visiting his son in a hospital centre because of conflicts with the various workers

The complaint

A citizen denounces the fact that for nearly a year he has not been able to visit his son further to his many run-ins with the healthcare team and the representative of the Curateur public.

The citizen’s son was placed under the protective supervision of the Curateur public and has lived at a psychiatric hospital for several years. The conflicts are mainly related to administration of the son’s property, in-house rules, and permission to leave the facility. According to the citizen, the Curateur public does not have his son’s best interests at heart.

The investigation

• In its role of administrator to those they represent, the Curateur public must take families’ needs into account.
• The lines of communication between the citizen and the hospital workers were down.
• Due to the lack of communication between the citizen and the care providers and the designated curator, the citizen was not aware of how much good his presence did for his son.
• The curator and the healthcare team acknowledged that the father had an important role to play in supporting his son and in his son’s intervention plan.
• The respective needs of each of the parties had not been spelled out, so that their roles and contribution were not understood. The child’s best interests and the father-son relationship were suffering as a result.

The Québec Ombudsman’s conclusions

In order to re-establish relations, define a new intervention framework, and improve the son’s quality of life, the Québec Ombudsman asked the Curateur public to:

• take proper steps to improve communication between the citizen and the healthcare workers.

The Curateur public agreed to act on the Québec Ombudsman’s request. The father, the workers and the Curateur public met to define their respective expectations and how best to act in the son’s welfare. The citizen has resumed visiting his son since then.