‌
June 2019
This month: Voting now open & changes re: clinical supervision
Have You Cast Your Ballot?
The election of three CRPO Council members closes on Friday, June 21 at 5:00 p.m. All CRPO members who are eligible to vote may do so for the District 8 seat, which covers all of Ontario, and District 7 (Toronto) members can cast votes for 2 other seats. It’s easy—just log in to your member account and click on the “Election” tab. Get info on everyone who is running by reviewing the candidate statements, and get general elections info here.

Professionals who are voted on to regulatory college councils do not have a representational role. This means that the colleagues you elect to serve on Council are not there to represent your interests as a psychotherapist – that’s the job of your professional association. Rather, RPs who sit on Council are there to ensure that the public interest is protected through a regulatory approach that promotes, supports and requires safe, ethical and competent practice. 

Voting in Council elections is one of the most basic ways which regulated health providers can participate in the process of professional regulation. Other opportunities to engage with your regulatory college include by serving as non-elected committee members; taking the time to provide your front-line perspective when we consult on things like regulations, by-law changes and policies or guidelines; and by participation in meaningful professional development in order to meet your Quality Assurance Requirements. 

Questions? Email  elections@crpo.ca
Deborah Adams, CRPO Registrar
Registrar's Message

This spring, CRPO held a public consultation regarding retaining historical administrative suspensions and revocations (e.g. for non-payment of the annual renewal fee) to the public register so that a day-by-day status of member registration would be publicly available. Given the fact that this information is needed by third party insurers to cover psychotherapy services—a matter we know is important to you, our registrants—we were surprised by the negative response from consultation respondents. Although their numbers were relatively few, we heard from about 40 registrants who indicated that adding additional public register information would be unfair and not necessary from the public’s perspective.

In response to this feedback, we revisited our original assumptions to check their validity. CRPO staff contacted a number of insurance providers (as well as the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, which represents 99% of the country’s health insurance companies) for more information about how the public register is used. These agencies uniformly indicated that they access public register information to assist with providing coverage for psychotherapy services provided by an RP. For example, one insurance agency wrote:

“Registration history of your members is extremely important to insurers. Any break in registration, for disciplinary reasons, for retirement, etc, is watched carefully by insurers and no claims will be paid for a specific practitioner during a break in registration. Insurers will typically check your website frequently to make sure that registration information remains up-to-date. An interactive and easy to use website is important to us to ensure that we can find the information quickly and easily.”

CRPO’s mandate is not to advance the interests of care providers but to protect the public. As such, we recently published a statement about the importance of access to care . Insurance coverage, of course, is one important piece around client access to services. The coverage that some clients are able to access is contingent on insurance agencies being able to consult the public register for real-time and historical information about RPs who are in good standing.

Knowing this, I hope that all registrants would be able to see that this is part of the proper role of CRPO within the health care system: providing appropriate levels of information to the public and to insurers so that those who can use third party insurance are able to do so with confidence.

This matter will be going to CRPO Council at their meeting on June 20 th for further consideration.
Important Changes Regarding Clinical Supervision
The College of Psychologists of Ontario recently changed their position on psychologists providing clinical supervision to other health care professionals who are authorized to perform the controlled act of psychotherapy. You can read their revised FAQ on this matter and look at our Who Can Supervise Who page to understand what this means for RPs.

As a member of CRPO, if you are required to receive clinical supervision for registration purposes, you must assure that your clinical supervisor meets the criteria set out in the definition of clinical supervisor. In addition, your relationship with any clinical supervisor must not interfere with your ability to abide by the Professional Practice Standards for RPs.

Understand that you and your clinical supervisor would be operating within the regulatory frameworks of two distinct professions. Members of the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) have a duty to maintain the standards of the psychology profession. It is important to note that RPs can perform the controlled act of psychotherapy on their own authority, i.e. as members of CRPO. They do not require supervision to perform the controlled act of psychotherapy.

Finally, CPO has standards related to supervision which prohibit supervision for the sole purpose of third-party billing. Likewise, CRPO requires RPs to participate meaningfully in clinical supervision. If meaningful supervision does not take place, and the arrangement is merely a guise to access third party billing, a member may be subject to investigation or discipline by CRPO.
Call for RPs With Indigenous Experience
CRPO is looking for RPs who have expertise and experience in Indigenous psychotherapy and training to assist in the review of future applications who have applied using CRPO’s Indigenous Pathway to Registration form. Interested RPs should submit their resume/CV to info@crpo.ca . 
New Resource!
Thinking about going inactive next year? Review our handy Inactive Category FAQ to have all your questions answered.
Reminder
Members who were recently suspended or had their membership revoked are reminded it is unlawful to use the title of Registered Psychotherapist.
Accepted Bridging Program
The Bridge to Registration and Employment in Mental Health program (BREM) (Registration Stream), delivered by the Mennonite New Life Centre of Toronto, is the first bridging program for internationally trained practitioners to be accepted by CRPO as meeting the education requirements. This means that individuals who complete the BREM (Registration Stream) program will not need to fill out the Mapping Tool in CRPO’s application. More information about this can be found on our website .
The next meeting of CRPO Council will take place on June 20, 9:30 - 3:30 at the CRPO office. Want to attend? Be sure to register ahead of time and review the guidelines on attendance. 
Seating is limited and so you are asked to ensure you have a confirmation before attending!
CRPO is now on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow our feed for the latest on new resources, Council election updates, governance decisions and more!
A French application form is now available online as well as other resources for French-speaking members and applicants. 
Please do not unsubscribe. CRPO uses email to communicate with members about important College updates. If you choose to unsubscribe, it is then your responsibility to regularly check our website to keep yourself informed about your College obligations. 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.