Sexual abuse initiative
Processes
Reporting to Police
Patient Survey
& Practices
There is a limited exemption to the College’s
Patients who have been involved with the Coloverriding duty of confidentiality in the Regulated
lege’s investigative and discipline processes provide
Health Professions Act, to allow the College to share
a very valuable perspective. Their views and experiinformation with police in certain circumstances.
ences would be a strong source of information in terms
Council has asked the College to seek legislative change
of evaluating processes and practices.
to reduce some of the limitations on this ability to share
That is why we are currently conducting a survey to
information (see RHPA Provisions section.)
asses patient satisfaction levels with College processes
Council also directed the College to develop an
and to accordingly identify possible areas for improveinternal policy to standardize the approach to exercisment and enhancement.
ing this discretionary power to share information. The
The ICRC has also directed that steps be taken to inpolicy, which will be developed later this year, could
corporate a mechanism in College processes that would
set out the types of situations in which information
allow both patients and physicians to provide real-time
sharing may be appropriate, and the factors to be confeedback about their experience with the process.
sidered in determining whether to share information
in any given case.
Patient
Support &
Access
patient support and Access
Council reviewed how we interact with victims of sexual abuse and directed the College
to improve patient access and support by:
• eveloping a Rights and Responsibilities document
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for patients that would focus on the duties and obligations that physicians owe their patients. This would
not be limited to addressing the issues of sexual abuse.
• eveloping a multilingual education brochure about
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sexual abuse that would be used as an outreach tool
to provide information about the College’s role and to
encourage patients to come forward.
The Rights and Responsibilities document for patients
would be added to the existing complement of information and resources available with respect to sexual abuse
on the College’s website. We will also have an online
list of resources about available community services/
agencies that provide support to victims of sexual abuse.
These resources will be available to patients who want
to seek support beyond what the College provides.
The brochure will be a condensed version of the
information that is currently available on the College’s
website, including the specific information regarding
sexual abuse complaints.
Education
& Training
Education and Training
The College is now exploring opportunities to improve and expand upon education and training for the profession,
medical trainees, Council, Committees and
staff on matters relating to sexual abuse of patients by
physicians.
The College is already involved in education and
training work around boundaries, sexual misconduct
and sexual abuse. This includes a course on Boundaries, offered at Western University which is available
to practising physicians. (See the article on page 47
for more information). Council’s Sexual Abuse Initiative will build on ongoing education and training
initiatives and identify new opportunities to augment
education and training.
“Relevant education and training is absolutely key
to achieving the principles that ground the College’s
Sexual Abuse Initiative,” said Dr. Carol Leet, College
President.
Thoughtful scoping and planning, including
clarifying how this initiative fits into the College’s
broader education work, will be the focus of the
first of this initiative’s three phases. At its September
meeting, Council will consider a detailed plan setting
out anticipated learning needs and objectives and will
provide direction for moving forward.
Issue 2, 2015 Dialogue
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