Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office celebrates 25th anniversary

June 6, 2008 The Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office (PPAO) - the first and largest provincial mental health advocacy program in Canada - was established in 1983, and celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

The PPAO is an arm’s length program of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to protect the legal and civil rights of inpatients in provincial psychiatric hospitals.

The PPAO provides a full range of independent advocacy and rights advice services in those facilities. Since 2001 PPAO has provided rights advice to patients in most Ontario general hospitals with a mental health unit, and to individuals living in the community who are being considered for community treatment orders.