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June 21, 2017
Message from the Registrar
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Deborah Adams
Registrar
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The amendments made through this Act are intended to:
- improve regulatory oversight and accountability
- strengthen measures to protect patients/clients
- better support victims of sexual abuse by regulated health professionals
Psychotherapy involves a highly sensitive professional relationship between therapist and client. With the trust and confidentiality expected of a therapist, a client's emotional vulnerability could be subject to abuse, which may have serious and lasting consequences. This risk of harm is why the decision was made to regulate psychotherapy and psychotherapists in Ontario in 2007.
Council and staff will be implementing the changes required now and over the coming months as the Act is proclaimed. We will communicate about our progress and will look forward to collaborating with Members and stakeholders in our work toward eliminating sexual abuse in the profession, as well as prioritizing the safety and well-being of all clients in the care of Registered Psychotherapists.
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CRPO supports the intent of the Protecting Patients Act, 2017 and the commitment to addressing and eliminating sexual abuse of clients by Members, as well as ways of providing greater transparency regarding College processes. These amendments to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 will offer stronger regulatory tools to address sexual abuse and provide greater public protection overall.
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Message from the President
As regulated health professionals, Regulated Psychotherapists have an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of their clients' personal health information and to comply with privacy regulations. Members need to consider how to communicate with and about clients in a way that protects privacy in an environment where the technology is ever-changing. Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the profession of psychotherapy and is embedded in its core values. Individuals come to psychotherapists with sensitive, personal information and confidentiality is required to build trust in the therapeutic relationship. Confidentiality is also an important legal concept that applies to all regulated health professionals.
CRPO's
Professional Practice Standards
outline the requirements that should guide Members' in their practice, including electronic practice and the use of any technology. The standards to be considered when implementing and evaluating the use of technology for any part of practice includes Standard 3.1: Confidentiality, Standard 3.2: Consent, Standard 3.3: Communicating Client Care, Standard 5: Record-keeping and Documentation, and - most specifically - Standard 3.4: Electronic Practice.
Specific questions related to your practice can also be directed to the CRPO Practice Advisor using
[email protected]
. Future communiques and specific bulletins will also be used to provide information related to electronic practice. I would encourage all Members to read these as they are developed in order to assist you in meeting the required standards of practice as technology becomes ever more available.
Andrew Benedetto, RP
President
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If Members wish to educate themselves further about personal health information, confidentiality and electronic practice, the following legislation and resources may be helpful:
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Message from the Manager, Registration
In the final three months of the grandparenting process (that is from January 1 to March, 31, 2017) we received over 2,400 new grandparenting applications. Now, staff are working diligently to process applications as quickly and efficiently as possible and will continue to do so for some considerable time. An applicant who submitted a complete, comprehensive grandparenting application that clearly meets all the requirements for registration can expect to receive the outcome of their review within approximately 12 months. If your application is referred to a panel of the Registration Committee for further review, the result will take around 16 months to complete.
Missed the grandparenting deadline?
Please note that the grandparenting route closed on March 31, 2017. This deadline is written into our legislation and thus there are no extensions. If you missed the deadline, we ask that you check the eligibility requirements for the
regular route
, as it is now the main pathway to registration with CRPO.
Regular route applications are subject to a different registration process and so are not impacted by the volume of grandparenting applications. Complete, comprehensive applications that meet all the requirements for registration can expect the result of their review within approximately six months of submission. Applications that are referred to a panel of the Registration Committee will take longer to process but an applicant can expect to hear the outcome in around 10 months.
Monitoring Your Application Status
Due to the significant volume of applications undergoing review, there is an increased timeframe between the application submission date and the start of a review.
You can easily track the progress of your application through the review stages by checking the status indicator in your user account, located on the application landing page (i.e. the page with hyperlinks to all the sections of the form). An explanation of each status can be found in the chart on the homepage of
CRPO's website
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Correspondence with CRPO about Your Application
Staff may contact applicants with questions once the review of their application begins. If you submitted an application, please monitor your CRPO user account or your e-mail inbox regularly for the notifications we send alerting you to a system message and respond to any questions or requests for additional information as quickly as possible to minimize delays. To facilitate efficient processing of applications:
- If a staff member has questions during the first review, they will send a detailed message to the user's online account addressing the concerns.
- If more information is required after receiving the response, a staff member will follow-up for a second and final time.
- If we do not receive a substantive response within two months of the date of the second request for clarification, or the two attempts fail to result in satisfactory information, the application may then be referred to a panel of the Registration Committee for further consideration and possible refusal.
To minimize delays in processing for everyone, we are not able to respond to questions about when an individual application will be processed.
We thank you in advance for your patience while you wait to hear the outcome of your application submission.
Monica McPherson
Manager, Registration
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Discipline Committee Decisions - Now Available
The Discipline Committee is responsible for holding hearings into allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence about College Members.
Following the conclusion of each Discipline Committee hearing, the panel's Decision and Reasons (or a summary of those reasons) are published. This is to ensure a transparent process and to educate Members and the public about the standards expected by the College.
The following decisions are now available online:
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Updates from CRPO
- Election Reminder - Voting Closes June 30th
- Client Relations Committee Update
- Council Meeting Guidelines for Observers and Question Period Policy
1. Election Reminder - Voting Closes on June 30th
An important responsibility for all members of a self-regulated profession is to participate in selecting fellow members to serve on the governing Council of the profession. Time is running out to cast votes in this year's Council Elections for District 2 - North and District 4 - Central East. Voting closes at noon on June 30, 2017 - no ballots will be accepted after the deadline. If you haven't already done so, please vote and make your voice count.
Please note:
Only Members in good standing whose primary practice or residence (if not practising) was located in Districts 2 or 4 on March 31, 2017 are eligible to vote in this election.
To those Members who have already voted, we thank-you for your participation!
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2. Client Relations Committee Update
It is the responsibility of every health regulatory college to develop a program, known as the Patient (Client) Relations Program, aimed at preventing sexual abuse of clients by members and dealing with instances of abuse when they do occur.
CRPO's Client Relations Committee has met several times and continues to build upon measures to prevent sexual abuse and how to handle cases of sexual abuse if they arise, in accordance with
Bill 87, the Protecting Patients Act
. CRPO is committed to protecting clients from sexual abuse by Members and has re-affirmed a zero-tolerance approach to sexual abuse of clients by Members.
For more information about CRPO's client relations program, please visit our
website.
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3. Council Meeting Guidelines for Observers and Question Period Policy
Council meetings take place four to five times a year and are open to the public. CRPO is currently working on revising the reservation policy as well as creating a code of conduct for observers and a question period policy. The reservation policy will be updated to reflect a smaller available space for observers and the code of conduct will provide expectations that observers can follow at each meeting. While observers are not permitted to speak at Council meetings, questions can be submitted in advance and will be addressed at the meeting if appropriate to do so. Please continue to watch this space and our
website
for updates regarding Council meetings.
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Other CRPO News
- Now Available: Record-Keeping and Advertising Practices Self-Review Checklists
- Practice Advisory FAQ - Self-Referral
1. Now Available: Record-Keeping and Advertising Practices Self-Review Checklists
Do you ever wonder if your records or advertising materials are meeting
CRPO's Professional Practice Standards
? Find out now by completing one of the self-review checklists now available on CRPO's website.
The checklists will help you review your own:
These tools are available for use at your convenience. Any insights or learning needs you identify when completing the self-review checklists will remain private as there is no expectation to share your results with CRPO or others.
If you have questions about the checklists or standards, please contact
[email protected]
.
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2. Practice Advisory FAQs
CRPO offers a practice advisory service to respond to enquiries related to professional practice, ethics and practice standards. This service provides information and resources to Members to assist with challenging practice situations.
The Practice Advisory service will also continue to provide answers to frequently asked questions on various topics. Our first FAQ was about
Fees and Billing
.
This month's topic is
Self-Referral
. We hope Members find it to be helpful.
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Introducing the New Ontario Health Regulators Website
In 2017, the Federation of Health Regulatory Colleges of Ontario created
www.ontariohealthregulators.ca
. The OHR website is the one-stop gateway to the websites of all the health regulators in Ontario. From here, the public can find the most trustworthy, relevant, and up-to-date information about the colleges and the health professionals they regulate.
What are the advantages of using the OHR website?
- This new website recognizes the public's need for easy-to-access information and resources on regulated health professionals in a single place.
- On this site, visitors will be able to access the registers of all 26 health colleges, find a health professional and see important information about a health professional's registration and discipline history.
- The site also contains a variety of articles to help users of the healthcare system make the most of their care and time with regulated health professionals.
- The information on this site is available in 10 languages.
Why should I share the OHR website?
Your help is needed to complement the efforts already in place to reach as wide an audience as possible. The website will be marketed on social media to Ontario caregivers using video and sponsored posts. A targeted online article campaign will also be launched across the province to promote the value of using the services of regulated health professionals and the new website. Please watch for updates.
Together, we will increase public awareness about the advantages of regulation.
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It is the responsibility of each Member to make sure CRPO has your current contact information, updated within 30 days of a change, and ensure that the organization you work for does not block CRPO emails.
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