BackConsistent with the theme of the 12th IOI World Conference (“Giving Voice to the Voiceless”), this paper describes how Ombudsman institutions can design investigations that protect the rights and interests of disadvantaged groups; in the case of this paper, mental health patients.
While the paper itself is based on Canadian experiences, it is anticipated that many countries share similar experiences in this field and that the topic is therefore of broader interest for the IOI community. In order to reflect practices and experiences from other Ombudsman offices around the world, sidebar stories have been annexed to the paper.
The IOI would like to thank the author of the paper, the Office of the Ombudsman of Alberta (Canada), Ms Marianne Ryan, and her competent team for providing IOI members with a paper on yet another timely topic. We also thank the British Columbia Ombudsperson Jay Chalke for sharing experience and best practices from his office in this paper as well.
The IOI introduced the Best Practice Paper series with a view to providing guidance material on key features which inform strong and independent control mechanisms and to present and share best practices from Ombudsman offices around the world. Other papers in the IOI’s Best Practice Paper series include:
- Issue 1 - Developing and Reforming Ombudsman Institutions
- Issue 2 - Securing effective change
- Issue 3 - Own initiative investigations
- Issue 4 - Peer review guidance
All Best Practice Papers are available on the IOI website. If your institution would be interested in developing a Best Practice Paper for this IOI publication series, please feel free to contact the IOI General Secretariat; we are looking forward to receiving your proposals for topics.
