When you disagree with a decision: reviews, complaints and who can help

The public body's answer is not what your parent asked for. Nothing here is legal or financial advice: it sets out routes public bodies describe, and only the body that decided can say what applies.

Start with what your parent wants to do

The decision is about your parent's help, so whether to question it, complain or let it stand is theirs to choose, with family support if they wish.

Whether a parent can make a particular decision is not for a family to settle alone; where it is in doubt, it belongs with their doctor or care team, and the formal side differs by place.

Find the route the body itself describes

Ontario Health atHome says that where a concern about whether services are given, how much, or whether they stop remains unresolved after the care coordinator and a manager, the person may request its formal review. Ontario Health atHome also says the person has the right to appeal its decision to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board, which describes itself as an independent tribunal.

British Columbia's page says certain home and community care decisions, among them changes to the services authorized, can be appealed within the person's health authority, and that every health region has a Patient Care Quality Office for formal care quality complaints.

Québec's government says health and social services complaints in general go to the institution's local service quality and complaints commissioner, whom it describes as independent of the institution.

Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) says someone not happy with a decision not to approve a home support application can write to their local home support office explaining why, and that the decision is then reviewed. The HSE's page gives the time limit for this. Separately, the HSE describes Your Service Your Say as its route for feedback about its services, including formal complaints.

This guide covers Ontario, British Columbia and Québec in Canada, and Ireland. For Alberta and the Canadian territories, no official source on reviews or complaints was found; there, and elsewhere in Canada, your parent can ask the public health or social care body where they live. No official source was found for Thailand, where your parent can ask the public health or social care body.

Know the offices outside the body, and what each takes on

British Columbia's page names the Office of the Ombudsperson as a place to raise concerns about a decision or response on home and community care services.

Québec's government says a person not satisfied with the commissioner's response can take a health and social services complaint to the Ombudsman, the Protecteur du citoyen.

For a complaint about HSE services through Your Service Your Say, the HSE says someone not happy with the recommendations can ask for an internal review, and for an external review by the Office of the Ombudsman. Ireland's Office of the Ombudsman says it examines complaints from people unhappy with how they were treated by certain public service providers, the HSE among them, and that a complaint goes to the provider first.

Separately from any review or appeal of a decision, Ontario's Patient Ombudsman says it helps resolve complaints about experiences of home care services provided by Ontario Health atHome, and asks people to try the organization first.

Know where advocacy help is described

In Ireland, the HSE says people may be able to get help from an advocacy service when making a complaint, and the Citizens Information Board says Citizens Information, a statutory body, supports information, advice and advocacy on public and social services.

Let the body say what applies, and your parent decide

What can be reviewed, how and by when is set by the deciding body and the rules where your parent lives. Legal questions belong with legal advice where your parent lives. What happens next is your parent's to decide.