Who cares about the most vulnerable?

They have serious behavior problems. Their entourage has moved away over time. Their family, overwhelmed, entrusted them to the care of the Curateur public. Today, these people find themselves adrift, lost in the maze of a system that does not know how to watch over them.

We have already denounced the Curateur public’s serious shortcomings with regard to its wards. Reports by our colleagues Katia Gagnon and Caroline Touzin revealed that about fifty of them found themselves in a situation of homelessness, that the Curator had failed to fulfill its support mission. And that he hadn’t sounded the alarm to say that he was overwhelmed by the task.

Our colleagues returned to the charge last week with another equally shocking report. They say that about forty people suffering from intellectual disabilities and severe behavioral problems, under the supervision of the Curateur public, find themselves in detention. They are subjected there to unacceptable conditions that threaten their security and integrity. They do not receive the support or services to which they are entitled. And, once again, it seems that the Curateur public is not there to speak on their behalf.

When they get out of prison, things aren’t much better. These individuals find themselves on the street because there is no structure to accommodate them.

Some live in conditions that we would not even tolerate for a dog.

Organizations send these hypervulnerable people back to each other like a hot potato. The owners don’t want it. Places in supervised resources are limited and their cases are often considered too severe.

At present, there are ongoing support resources (RAC), where in 2019-2020 approximately 11,000 beneficiaries with serious behavioral disorders lived. But as researcher Guillaume Ouellet from UQAM points out, these accommodations are not always adapted to needs. The staff turnover rate is particularly high there and does not make it possible to establish the conditions necessary to provide adequate supervision. We need more small houses with permanent workers if we want to offer them real stability.

Two years ago, the Minister Delegate for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, inaugurated new accommodation models, the URCI (intensive behavioral rehabilitation units). Three pilot projects are underway in the Capitale-Nationale, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Montérégie-Ouest regions. These new units – which accommodate around ten people each – should gradually replace the RACs. But the minister’s office cannot tell us at what rate or when these units will be available in the Montreal region, where the needs are crying out.

No one wants to go back to the 1950s, the era before deinstitutionalization, when people with intellectual disabilities or psychiatric problems were interned against their will, in conditions that were not always humane.

Today, the rights of vulnerable people are recognized and we cannot – with some exceptions – impose treatment on them that they do not want. Except that the preferred approach has serious failures and fails to respond to the most complex cases.

Because it is not true that everyone can be autonomous. There will always be individuals who will need close supervision. Can we and, above all, do we want to offer them services that truly meet their needs?

As we write these lines, it is clear that we have collectively abandoned the most vulnerable in society. We have thrown in the towel. We are not even able to guarantee them a roof over their heads, which is a minimum in a country as rich as ours.

Véronique Cloutier and Louis Morissette created a foundation that builds houses for autistic adults. Martin Matte did it for brain trauma. Will a Quebec star have to find a solution for the pupils of the Public Curator, who seems overwhelmed by his mandate?