A number of OSRP members have contacted the OSRP Board about the upcoming Case-Based Assessment (CBA), part of the CRPO’s ongoing Quality Assurance (QA) Enhancement Project.

This is something that will, at some point, affect every CRPO Registrant, so even if you are not currently aware of the upcoming CBA, we want to help you learn more. Your association wants to help inform and empower all members as much as possible.

The OSRP/CRPO Committee does not currently have a Chair, so the Executive Committee of the Board has absorbed this responsibility. We have posted a job description for a newly-created position – OSRP Liaison to CRPO.

In the meantime, we have taken some action with regard to the CBA. 

The OSRP is a member of a larger, umbrella group of fellow associations called the PRPA: the Partnership of Registered Psychotherapist Associations.

The PRPA collectively represents one-third of all 11,000+ CRPO Registrants.

We have been working with the Chair of their standing PRPA CRPO Committee to bring items forward to the CRPO. We have raised all of the questions and concerns you shared with us (anonymized, of course). The PRPA, in consultation with OSRP, has focused its interventions with CRPO on seven areas:

• What led the CRPO to implement the CBA as part of its “Right Touch” efforts?
• How does our College compare to others, including those whose members practise the Controlled Act of Psychotherapy, in terms of:
  a) number of complaints received, and
  b) assessment/QA of its members?
• Can the CRPO explain to all Registrants:
  ○ who will be asked to take the CBA,
  ○ when they will be asked to take it, and
  ○ how it fits in with their overall QA schedule?

(NB: Most recently, the CRPO advised those who just did their regular bi-annual QA that the CBA will be randomly applied to 20% of all Registrants per year. It seems that every Active Registrant will be asked to do the CBA once every five years.)

• Is the CRPO certain that accessibility needs of neurodiverse, BIPoC, differently-abled, Senior, and other Equity-seeking Registrants have been met in all aspects of the CBA (even in the practice questions section of the CRPO website, which currently offers no accessibility supports, unlike the pilot CBA which offered multiple opportunities to obtain accessibility supports)?
• Is there a way for CRPO to know if there is an impact on neurodiverse, BIPoC, differently-abled, Senior, and other Equity-seeking Registrants (with reference to anxiety and other barriers)?
• Will the CRPO be offering alternate modes of assessment such as an open-book oral exam, if requested by Registrants?
• Registrants are aware of  the Ontario Human Rights Code and other protections. Has the CRPO had the opportunity to evaluate the administration of the CBA through this lens, or do an “accessibility audit” of materials?

We expect that the answers to the above questions, and others, will be found in upcoming CRPO communications to all Registrants.

Further, the Protect SubCommittee was established by the OSRP Board on Feb 17, 2023. 

Its mandate is to:

• help RPs, RP(Q)s and Students to protect themselves by identifying common ethical challenges and self-education around practising safely and ethically.
• initiate programs including webinars, newsletter articles etc. that help protect members before an ethical breach happens, from which complaints to the CRPO may arise
• drive discussions in Community groups for RPs
• propose topics that make impact (changemakers) 

In light of the upcoming CBA, we have chosen our first Seminar as follows:

PS: protect yourself Protect Seminar #1

RISK MITIGATION FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS

Analysis of the most common causes for complaints and lawsuits, with advice on how to avoid mistakes, and minimize the risk of discipline or malpractice judgments

Date: Thursday, April 6, 2023

Time: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Location: Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor St, Toronto (Grosvenor Room) and Online via Zoom

Presenter: Lisa E. Hamilton, Partner, Temple Bell LLP, Litigation Lawyers.

This seminar includes:

• A slide presentation on risk mitigation and an opportunity for Q&A from in-person, and virtual attendees.
• Information from members about the CRPO’s upcoming CBA (Case-Based Assessment)

This will give all members an opportunity to work through the CBA practice questions in community, with supports and guidance from members who have completed the open-book pilot CBA when it was three hours long (now it’s four hours for the same number of multiple-choice questions (30), with an option to make an advance request more time as needed).

We hope many of you who have taken the pilot CBA might be able to attend, or anonymously submit comments in writing beforehand to mail@psychotherapyontario.org, to offer your wisdom to others.

• Deck and video available post-seminar for all member attendees and OSRP members who choose the “Next Best Thing” or “Flex Pass” options.

To register for this PS: Protect Seminar, and/or the other four offered in 2023, please visit: https://osrp.ca/events 

Thank you for your ongoing support as we work through this addition to the CRPO QA. The OSRP is trying to mitigate the impacts on all members, with special consideration for those who struggle with anxiety, learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD and other forms of neurodiversity, and the impacts of oppression such as racism, classism, sexism, ageism, and ableism in all its forms.

We will continue to try to support and advocate for all members as best we can.

Please contact us directly at mail@psychotherapyontario.org if you are one of the 20% of Active Registrants randomly selected to do a CBA this May and you require additional supports. 

Also, if you want a sense of overall advocacy by the OSRP Board on behalf of psychotherapists, please visit a new feature on our website, Advocacy Corner.

Sincerely,

The Executive Committee of the OSRP