BackThe Québec Ombudsman just released an Investigation Report about the accessibility to home support services for people with significant and persistent disabilities. In Province of Québec, there is a home support policy that provides that domestic help and personal assistance services are offered free of charge to:
- people with a temporary disability;
- people receiving palliative care;
- people with a significant and persistent disability.
The Québec Ombudsman’s investigation focused on the third item, the one that involves long-term home support. Further to the sizable increase in substantiated complaints on this subject in the past year, the Ombudsperson wanted to conduct this investigation to determine whether recommendations on overall measures were called for to prevent the situation from worsening.
The report underscores the gap between the home support policy and the daily lives of people with significant and persistent disabilities who receive—or should receive—these services.
This gap causes natural caregivers to burn out and puts stress on the healthcare system (poor use of places in hospitals, rehabilitation centres, and residential resources).
On the strength of the findings from the investigation, the Québec Ombudsman has made recommendations to the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, the government department responsible for implementing the policy, and to instances in charge to apply these guidelines.
Find more information on the institution's website.
Source: Protecteur du Citoyen du Québec
