“We’re here to help”
CAAP Estrie hires dedicated English agent
The Centre d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux Plaintes (CAAP) Estrie has been working to support the rights of people within the healthcare system for the last 17 years. Despite this fact, they still face a large number of locals who simply have no idea who they are and what they do, particularly in the English speaking community.
“Our non-profit organization helps users of the health and social services in the Townships to formulate complaints against the health and social services. We assist and accompany users throughout the whole complaint process,” explained Angela Moore, the organization’s newest complaints advisor and promotional agent.
Although Moore’s job is fundamentally the same as that of her coworkers, to help people who want to file an official complaint but don’t know how, her job is noteworthy in that it was created with a very specific purpose in mind.
“I was hired to assist the English speaking population of the Townships,” Moore said. “Essentially any English speaking person who calls comes straight to me.”
Now four months into a 41-week pilot project to provide clearer and more direct service to English speakers, Moore said that the organization is working hard on trying to draw attention to their own existence to help keep the program going.
“We’re trying to make it a permanent position because it is working,” she said.
Serge Arel, the Executive Director of CAAP Estrie, said that although the organization has been conscious of the needs of the English community since its very beginnings, it has not always had the budget on hand to offer a dedicated English speaking employee. With the addition of the La Pommeraie administrative district and its significant English population to the territory of the local healthcare network in 2015, Arel said that something had to be done.
“La Pommeraie is the region with the largest percentage of English speakers,” the executive director said. “They need to be served by someone who knows the context and nuance of what they are saying.”
Although Arel underlined the fact that all of the organization’s employees are bilingual, he used the example of people’s right to health services in their own language to clarify the value of having a native English speaker on hand.
“If I arrive at emergency complaining of chest pain, do they give me Nitro or Gravol?” the executive director said. “These are two very different medications depending on how I expressed my pain.”
Recognizing that level of importance, Arel said, the CAAP chose to turn a budget surplus for 2017 into a deficit in the name of showing that a dedicated English advisor is worthwhile.
”We want people to know that they have rights,” he added, noting that the English community has a tendency to talk about issues amongst themselves, without reaching out. “We want to be a part of that conversation,” he said.
Asked about the actual work of the organization, Moore and Arel explained that there are 16 CAAP organizations across the province, all tasked with the mission of making it easier for people to navigate the complicated process of filing a complaint within the healthcare system.
“All you need to do is call us, we know what the process is and we can make it a lot simpler for someone to manage,” Moore said, noting that the majority of callers have no idea where to begin or what rights they have in a given situation. “From what I can see, people have no idea where to get the information and what to do. It’s the beginning steps. Once they’re in the process, they’re better off.”
Arel added that the confusion seems to be present across the board.
“There are very well educated people who come to us and say I don’t know what to do and there are other people who have problems with reading and writing,” the Executive director said. “We respond to all needs.”
Moore underlined the fact that the CAAP agents are not lawyers and cannot be involved complaints requesting financial compensation but said that otherwise the team is there to help in whatever way possible.
“People just need to be informed that we exist,” she said. “We’re here to help.”
“We all have the same mandate and the same way of operating,” Arel added. “Whether a person is accompanied by the CAAP Gaspesie, the CAAP Abitibi, or the CAAP Estrie, the process is the same.”
More information about CAAP Estrie is available at http://caapestrie.org/en/