Keep the PPAO Independent!
Backgrounder: Why We Need to Keep Psychiatric Patient Advocacy Independent. A document that outlines why we need advocacy and why it needs to be independent.
New News!
On February 23, 2012 we met with a senior policy advisor to Minister Matthews. The goal of the meeting was discuss the promised consultation and raise a few outstanding concerns. At the meeting we learned that the Ministry does not plan to divest the PPAO from the government. This was good news.
However, the CIPPAO maintains concern respecting the current role of the PPAO and, while the meeting was positive, we still have a number of questions regarding the slow erosion of advocacy that we sent to the Ministry.
The response for Patricia Li, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Minstry of Health and Long Term Care was less that we had hoped for. You can read it here.
As mentioned in our meeting, as we represent a number of stakeholders in our respective roles and organizations, we are working on getting a response in order to address these questions and others that continue to come forward since our last attempt at communication.
One of the PPAO offices (North Bay) has been divested and there are rumours that other hospitals may want to follow suit. This means that the accountability structure and the mandate of the PPAO will continue to be diminished.
We remain committed to working with the Ministry to develop the best advocacy framework for people with mental health issues.