Following on last year's success in Montreal,
The Forum of Canadian Ombudsman is pleased to announce the return of Chris Wheeler, Deputy Ombudsman, New South Wales, Australia to present his workshop.

Dealing with Unreasonable Complainant Behaviour

The workshop will be presented in four cities across Canada.

Halifax, Nova Scotia - October 19th
Ottawa, Ontario - October 21st
Regina, Saskatchewan - October 23rd
Victoria, British Columbia - October 26th

Everyone who works in an ombudsman's office has to deal with an "unreasonable" complainant at one time or another. Sometimes complainants' behaviour is difficult because they've been fighting for so long that an angry or aggressive approach has become second nature - and a defence against another disappointment. Sometimes a complainant suffers from a mental illness. Sometimes a complainant is unreasonable, overly impatient, excessively demanding or just plain rude, abusive and hard to get along with.

Unreasonable complainant behaviour affects everyone in an office. It creates stressful situations and negative, sometimes even combative relationships. It undermines productivity, causes enormous frustrations, and takes up a disproportionate amount of time. It is hard to deal with and the number of this type of case seems to be growing.

This workshop will help you deal more effectively with unreasonable complainant behaviour, no matter what its cause and what form it takes.

Based on an innovative approach to handling unreasonable complainant conduct, developed by the eight Australian Parliamentary Ombudsman, this full-day workshop will look at both theory and practice.

• What is (and what isn't) unreasonable complainant conduct? - definitions and categories.
• What leads complainants to act unreasonably? - motivations and triggers.
• How to determine whether conduct is unreasonable - what are the criteria?
• General strategies (and some particular techniques) you can use to prevent and manage unreasonable conduct;
• When you should apply those strategies; and
• What are the responsibilities of agencies and staff to prevent and manage unreasonable conduct

This focused workshop is full of useful information and techniques which will be of interest to every type of ombudsman office. As well there will be tools and ideas to help anyone associated with the office from intake staff to the most senior investigator and the ombudsman her/himself.

Plan early so as not to be disappointed. Mark your calendars for one of the four cities.

N.B. The language of instruction for this course is English.

Questions: Steve Olive Email People@ombudsmanforum.ca

The FCO is presenting this workshop in cooperation with the Nova Scotia Ombudsman, the National Capital Commission Ombudsman, the Saskatchewan Ombudsman and the British Columbia Ombudsman

• Interactive Form
• Hard copy Form