CAAP Laval celebrates 15th anniversary
Group helps with complaints about health care system
Published May 19 , 2010
By Martin C. Barry • TLN

Considering what the Centre d’assistance aux plaintes de Laval (CAAP) does for people and that it’s been around for 15 years, you’d think more people would know about it.
It’s a problem, admits Jean Bélair, executive-director of the organization, which is officially mandated by Quebec to assist people with complaints about the province’s health and social services system.

Raising awareness
As much as CAAP has tried with some success to raise awareness of itself over the years, relatively few people seem to know of its existence. On the other hand, if they did, CAAP might be dealing with an overload of complaints directed against Quebec’s already much-criticized public health care network.
On May 10, a reception was held at a church hall in the Pont-Viau district, marking the 15th anniversary of the Laval CAAP’s coming into being. On hand were some of Laval’s elected officials, including Laval-des-Rapides Liberal MNA Alain Paquet. CAAP’s role is not to process complaints, but rather to assist and “accompany” any user of the health care system in filing a complaint if they feel they’ve been shortchanged in the treatment they received.

The CAAP network
CAAP’s services are confidential and free of charge. The Laval CAAP is just one in a network of 16 agencies set up in the province’s largest centres like Laval, Montreal and Quebec City. Their mandate, which comes from the Ministry of Health and Social Services, dates back to the early 1990s when the Liberal government of the era decided it was about time certain legal recognitions were accorded to health service users. Bélair has headed the Laval CAAP since 1994.
As for the perception that CAAP has a low profile (or even that the health ministry perhaps sees no reason to encourage more complaints from service users), Bélair has no qualms in stating bluntly, “In reality what we do is not much. It’s a funny thing to say, isn’t it.” One of the important keys to the group’s discrete profile is that it is defined according to a community-based mandate. But Bélair doesn’t disagree that the government might have some interest in effectively keeping CAAP’s existence relatively secret.

Complaints annually
According to Bélair, CAAP Laval deals with no more than 400 complaints annually, a figure he considers quite low given that the City of Laval has more than 375,000 population. He estimates that for each person who contacts the organization, there are at least 25 others with the same complaint against the health care system. Another thing is that CAAP Laval doesn’t go out actively looking for unhappy users. In fact, CAAP’s mandate makes that very explicit.
For his part, Paquet has no doubts about the value of the CAAP network, and the Laval CAAP in particular. When issues concerning service in the health care system come to his attention, he says the complainants are usually referred to the local CAAP office. “As soon as we hear from a constituent who sincerely believes they’ve gotten a bad reception and thinks they have the basis for a complaint, my employees all know to refer them to CAAP,” Paquet says.

CAAP important: Paquet
“It’s important to make complaints when it’s warranted, because if there are problems they won’t be corrected if steps aren’t taken,” he adds. “But it’s also important for an organization like that to be independent. And it’s important they should be well known in the community and I am a big promoter of their work and their services. When people have a problem they often end up calling their MNA, and I’ll tell them to call CAAP if it’s a problem that CAAP can deal with.”