Alberta office that investigates abuse in care stopped publishing outcomes as cases piled up

Critics are questioning the operations and transparency of an Alberta office that investigates allegations of abuse against people receiving publicly funded care.

The Protection for Persons in Care (PPC) program within Alberta Health investigates allegations of abuse against vulnerable adults receiving publicly funded care or support services from hospitals, nursing homes, seniors' lodges, mental health facilities, shelters, group homes, addictions treatment centres, supportive living facilities and programs for persons with developmental disabilities.

EngageFirst Management Consultants reviewed the PPC program for Alberta Health and created a final report with 17 recommendations on Aug. 7, 2022. 

All of the recommendations and much of the report, which CBC News obtained through a freedom of information request, were redacted under legislation that exempts public bodies from disclosing information that reveals advice, proposals, recommendations, analyses or policy options.

But some of the report's contents were provided. 

According to the document's executive summary, the last decade of the program has been "quite eventful," with "changes in staff, leadership, and program practices, and an accumulation of open files from several years past waiting for the director's decision."

The report says based on data from 2016-21, people who brought allegations to the office were waiting an average of two-and-a-half years for a decision.

Terry Price, the chair of the seniors task force for Public Interest Alberta, gasped when she learned that people waited that long for decisions.

"Two-and-a-half years is absolutely unacceptable," Price said in an interview with CBC News.

For the most part, abuse reports are submitted by people representing adults, such as family members and friends, the report explains.

The report says the consultants approached the review with a goal of "creating a program that can deliver timely decisions, in order to provide closure to the families and the adults who have alleged abuse."

The provincial government used to publish annual statistical reports and decision summaries for the PPC program, but none have been posted online after the 2019-20 fiscal year. 

CBC News obtained statistics about the program and decision summaries for the last three fiscal years through freedom of information requests. 

The documents show there were 213 reports of abuse containing 264 allegations submitted in those three years. Reports can contain more than one abuse allegation.