BackOmbudsman staff who investigate complaints often say the hardest part of the job is handling the behaviour of some of the people who use their services. Complainants may be angry or frustrated when they approach the Ombudsman; sometimes with good reason. They might be vulnerable or distressed, and occasionally, they even may demonstrate abusive or threatening behaviour. Although this kind of behaviour is hard to deal with, there can be a legitimate grievance at the heart of related complaints.
Issue 6 of the IOI’s Best Practice Paper (BPP) series is based on the Victorian Ombudsman’s “Dealing with Challenging Behaviours Guide” and has been modified to reflect an international audience. The paper is intended to provide guidance to those who have not developed their own and to help complaint handlers deal with such challenging behaviour and improve their service.
The IOI would like to thank the author of the paper, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass, for sharing the strategy her office has developed to deal with the challenging behaviour of complainants and to make sure complaint handlers around the world can benefit from the Victorian Ombudsman’s experience and best practice.
The IOI introduced its BPP series with a view to provide 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. All BPPs are available on the IOI website. If your institution would be interested in sharing best practices on Ombudsman-related matters through the development of an IOI Best Practice Paper, please feel free to contact the IOI General Secretariat with topic proposals from your line of work.
