Laval's CRDI Normand-Laramée hold first Parents’ Platform

CRDI Normand-Laramée, which is Laval’s central agency for the treatment children afflicted with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), is breaking new ground with some measures allowing parents to become more active as participants.

A one-day seminar held for more than 300 parents by the CRDI at the Château Royal congress centre on May 17 was organized so as to facilitate greater participation by them in the way things are done at Normand-Laramée and to give them a greater say in the way their children are treated.

Getting involved
The seminar, which CRDI officials called a Plate-Forme Parents, is one of the first stages of this new approach. In an interview with the Laval News, the CRDI’s executive-director, Claude Belley, said this was the first type of event to be organized.
“We are possibly the only CRDI in Quebec to have equipped itself with a tool like this, which allows parents and significant others to be able to participate and influence the orientations and the decisions of the CRDI,” he said. “Before, the parents were limited in what they could accomplish. Now this will allow nearly 30 parents from different work groups to truly get across the views of the parents.”

Parents get their say
According to Belley, a visit in 2007 by the minister responsible for CRDIs in Quebec led to a suggestion by the minister that some kind of facility for discussion by the parents needed to be created. “We invited the parents to take their place and they took it,” he said.
All the same, he added, parents had already been involved, although not to this extent. During the May 17 seminar, three sessions were held throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening) to accommodate all the parents who wanted to attend.

Survey conducted
“This was done in order to allow all the parents who wanted to be here to come so that they could participate,” said Belley. Following the sessions, the parents would be surveyed about what they liked during the congress and the results would then become the basis for improving services at CRDI Normand-Laramée.
“We felt it was necessary to make a very special place for families so that they could be heard,” added Belley. “We think we’ve done something that has potential, and we think already we’re on the right track since as you can seen more than 300 parents came here to participate.”