2024-2025 Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen - Press Release No. 2 - Health and social services: communication must be at the core of the interventions

QUÉBEC CITY, Oct. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - The Ombudsperson, Marc-André Dowd, tabled the 2024-2025 Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen today at the National Assembly.

Shortage of trained and available staff, lack of time, reduction of empathy and compassion: the health and social services network is running out of steam under pressure. As a result, communication too often is broken between users and their loved ones, on the one hand, and the health and social services network, on the other.

"Due to a lack of resources, the staff are led to concentrate on the duties to be performed, such that it raises concerns for the health and social services provided. However, it remains essential to establish a bond of trust with the users, listen to them and maintain respectful and attentive communication. Some care environments have strayed away from these priorities," Marc-André Dowd declared.

Listening to users attentively

• A user visited a hospital emergency room. After triage, the nurse told her to return to the waiting room and come back if her condition worsened. Later, since the pain was increasing, the woman returned to the triage to be told by the exasperated nurse that she should go back to her seat. Come back, but don't come back: that's the contradictory message she retained. After the Protecteur du citoyen intervened concerning the failure to listen, the hospital made the necessary reminders to its staff.
• In a psychiatric unit, employees showed intolerance to the users, causing adamant reactions to multiply. In one situation in particular, active listening to a user could have avoided a major crisis. The Protecteur du citoyen recommended corrections to the institution regarding this vulnerable clientele.

Helping the caregivers

The considerable contribution of caregivers is increasingly recognized, and the public care and services network would have difficulty to do without these allies.

"Some caregivers report to the Protecteur du citoyen that they are excluded by the staff to some extent. It is of the utmost importance to obtain and value the collaboration of caregivers by consulting them and making a place for them on the care team. The Act to recognize and support caregivers specifically exists to consider their active presence throughout their caregiving journey," the Ombudsperson reminded us.

• A citizen visited her mother almost daily at a nursing home (CHSLD) and frequently expressed her dissatisfaction to the staff members. They ended up ignoring her observations. The resident was victim of a stroke and the concerns expressed by her daughter in this regard were not considered. Given her condition and her daughter's apprehensions, the mother should have been seen immediately by the doctor on duty, which was not done. The Protecteur du citoyen recommended changes in the staff's practices.
• Sometimes the caregiver does not live close by. This was the case of a woman whose hospitalized mother had to be relocated to a nursing home (CHSLD). Yet her daughter was living abroad and faced a series of obstacles to assist her mother during her transfer, including difficulties having her mother's personal effects brought to her and obtaining the services of a social worker to calm her anxiety. The investigation by the Protecteur du citoyen revealed a clear lack of collaboration by the staff involved.

Follow-up of the Viens Commission: youth protection in Indigenous communities

The Protecteur du citoyen has the mandate to assess the implementation of the calls to action of the Public Inquiry Commission on Relations between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Québec: Listening, Reconciliation and Progress (Viens Commission).

In 2024-2025, in co-construction with the Advisory Circle – composed of representatives of First Nations and Inuit organizations – the Protecteur du citoyen worked on its next follow-up report, which will focus on youth protection in Indigenous communities. More specifically, 13 calls to action concerning the placement journey of First Nations and Inuit children and youth will be the subject of a more advanced analysis by the Protecteur du citoyen. The publication of the report will be announced in a timely manner. Parallel to this process, a follow-up document will be published in fall 2025 and will shed light on new factors to consider in the overall follow-up of implementation of the calls to action, particularly in relation to the other public services addressed by the Viens Commission.

"We recommend that the public services listen to the First Nations and Inuit citizens. We must therefore undertake to do likewise regarding our own services. We are working to build relationships of trust and to progress to better consideration of Indigenous realities within the Protecteur du citoyen," the Ombudsperson declared.

Let us remember that the Protecteur du citoyen impartially and independently ensures that people's rights are respected in their dealings with public services. Its services are free and easy to access.

For all information on the 2024-2025 Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen, go to the Annual Reports section of our website.

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SOURCE Protecteur du citoyen

Information: Carole-Anne Huot, person in charge of media relations, Phone: [phone]/Cell: 418 925-7994, Courriel: [email protected]