Safeguards and Standards – General

Intent

To describe mechanisms for addressing situations of risk to the health and safety of an Individual.

Policy

The PDD program works to address the safety and security needs of Individuals through the Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol and Duty to Report.

Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol

The Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol is a policy framework for the PDD Program. The purpose of the protocol is to provide a guideline that identifies processes and accountability measures related to abuse prevention and response. It describes the requirements for reporting and responding to abuse allegations that PDD stakeholders are to follow. PDD stakeholders including staff, management and contracted workers of Community Service Providers, Family Managed Services (FMS) Administrators and staff of family managed services as well as PDD direct operations and PDD regional staff are required to comply with the Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol. These stakeholders must be trained on the Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol.

Resources

Obligation to Report

When a PDD regional staff is made aware of a situation that potentially poses a risk to the health and/or safety of a PDD funded Individual, an Individual who is deemed eligible, or in the eligibility process, must report and/or take action.

It is mandatory that staff are required, by PDD, to report any incident of suspected abuse immediately to their Executive Director/designate, the guardian/FMS Administrator and PDD.

When Albertans believe abuse has occurred, they are required to contact a Protection for Persons in Care Complaints Officer through the Safeguards for Vulnerable Adults Reporting Line at 1‑888‑357‑9339 and press option #1.

PDD stakeholders are required to submit a Preliminary Report to the PDD Region within one working day of becoming aware of the alleged abuse. If the allegation falls within critical incident category, critical incident reporting policy should be followed. Once an allegation of abuse is reported to PDD, PDD regional staff will review the preliminary report, contact the Individual/guardian and/or family to ensure that Individual is safe, and contact the service provider agency, PDD direct operations or FMS Administrator to discuss what action has been taken or will be taken.

Service provider agencies, PDD direct operations staff, and PDD regional staff (in Family Managed Services situations) must conduct a review. After the completion of a review of the abuse allegation, a Final Report must be submitted to the PDD Region within 30 days of the abuse being reported. However, where the final report is not ready within 30 days, an interim report should be submitted every 30 days until a final report is completed and submitted. PDD regional staff will review the Final Report and follow-up with, as appropriate, service providers, PDD direct operations staff, FMS Administrators, Individuals, guardians, and families to discuss the report.

Circumstances for PDD to conduct a review

The decision to conduct a PDD lead review is based on Regional Director’s approval. Circumstances under which PDD may conduct a review may include, but are not limited to:

  • Repeated or multiple incidents of abuse have occurred
  • Abuse incident occurred under Family Managed Services
  • Incident is of a highly sensitive nature
  • An unsatisfactory process or questionable outcomes of a review by a service provider or PDD Direct Operations; or,
  • An Executive Director or Board member of a service provider agency or family hiring privately is implicated in the allegation

Once the preliminary report has been submitted to the PDD region and the APRP follow up form has been completed, a decision is made as to whether a PDD review of the reported incident will be conducted.

If the Regional Director approves a review, the review can be conducted by PDD staff or an external investigator hired by PDD.

Legislative Authority

Created: 2013-08-16
Modified: 2017-05-18
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