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TOWARD THE DESIGNATION OF COUNSELLING THERAPISTS
An Annotated Chronology
Concerning the Designation of Counselling Therapists
under the Health Professions Act
Prepared by: George K. Bryce
BCACC Legal Counsel
Current to: July 4, 2007
INTRODUCTION
The designation of counselling therapists as a health profession and the concurrent creation of a College of Counselling Therapists under the Health Professions Act has been an objective of the BCACC since the early 1990s. This annotated chronology and commentary tracks the major steps that have been taken to date to achieve that objective, with particular emphasis on the BCACC's involvement and leadership in the Task Group for Counsellor Regulation. Where available, links have been provided throughout this chronology to specific websites, reports, letters and other documents (some of which are PDF files requiring Acrobat Reader software) that are identified in the commentary. If you identify any broken links within this chronology, please bring these to our attention .
This chronology is presented in six streams of activity, which occasionally overlap:
- Background, describing the legislative and policy context for regulating health professions (1991 to the present);
- The BCACC's originating application through to the Health Professions Council's final report (1992 to 1997);
- Responding to the Council's final report and the creation of the Task Group for Counsellor Regulation (1997 to 1999);
- Negotiations with government and related events (1999 to the present);
- Task Group discussions re: organization of the College, entry requirements and related issues (1999 to the present).
- National events and initiatives (2005 to the present).
The BC Chapter of the Canadian Counselling Association [CCA(BC)] has established its own website on the creation of a College of Counsellors. The CCA(BC) website includes a discussion on some of the major issues that have arisen during the designation process and other useful links.
This chronology will be updated as required, in particular after there has been a major development in the work toward designating counsellors under the HPA.
Comments or concerns about this chronology may be sent to the author at:
George K. Bryce
Lawyer & Mediator
2486 West 13th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6K 2S8
Phone: 604-733-5027
Fax: 604-733-5143
TERMINOLOGY
In this chronology, I will use the name Counselling Therapists rather than Clinical Counsellor to describe the profession that will eventually be designated under the HPA. Counselling therapists constitute a group of mental health professionals that has a broader potential membership than is currently represented by the BCACC. I will use the name Clinical Counsellors when referring to the Association's membership.
The Health Professions Council ("the Council") was the government-appointed body that advised the Minister of Health (later the Minister of Health Planning) concerning the designation of counselling under the Health Professions Act ("the HPA"). During its eleven year existence, from 1991 to 2002, the Council also reviewed the applications for designation from other organizations, proposed new scopes of practice for other health professions and recommended changes to the HPA itself. A summary of the Council's activities and copies of its numerous reports can be found at the website of the Ministry of Health Planning, Legislation and Professional Regulation - Council's Reports. The current version of the HPA can be found at the website of the Queen's Printer - Health Professions Act.
The Task Group for Counsellor Regulation (or the Task Group) is an ad hoc committee of professional counselling associations formed in 1998 to develop a response to a government discussion paper on the regulation of counsellors. The Task Group is composed of eight professional associations that collectively represent over 2,500 counsellors working throughout BC. In alphabetical order, the current members of the Task Group are:
- American Association of Pastoral Counsellors (B.C. section);
- British Columbia Art Therapy Association;
- B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors;
- British Columbia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy;
- Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education;
- Canadian Counselling Association (B.C. Chapter);
- Music Therapy Association of British Columbia.
BACKGROUND: THE LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY CONTEXT
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| 1991 |
The Health Professions Act is proclaimed into force. The Health Professions Council is established and the first members are appointed by the then Minister of Health. The Council's initial mandate is to review applications for designation of new health professions under the Act. |
| July, 1992 |
Cabinet approves the Health Professions Regulation. This regulation sets out the criteria the Council must consider when reviewing the applications submitted by the organizations that believe their members should be designated under the HPA. This is the current version of the Health Professions Regulation. If the members of an organization are designated as a health profession under the HPA, the applicant organization does not become the college. Rather, a separate college is created, with a statutory mandate that is different than the organization's mandate (i.e. public protection vs. membership promotion). |
| November 1991 |
The Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs (aka the "Seaton Commission" after its chair) recommends in its report, Closer to Home, that all the then existing health professions in BC be designated under the HPA, and that BC adopt Ontario's model of "conditional acts" to narrow the scope of services that only members of a licensed profession may provide to the public (i.e. maximize public choice and minimize professional turf wars). [A copy of the Seaton Commission's final report is likely available in public and university libraries]. |
| 1992 |
The Council establishes an application form and the details of the application and its review process, including public hearings. |
| 1993 |
The Council is given an expanded mandate to look at designating all health professions under the HPA, and to develop BC's reserved act model. The Council's terms of reference were further revised in 1995 - see Terms of Reference. |
| 2001 |
In March, the Council issues a multi-volume report, Safe Choices, recommending that (a) all health professions be designated under the HPA, (b) their separate governing statutes be repealed, and (c) a series of changes to the HPA to facilitate those transitions. The Council also recommends substantial changes to the scope of practice, reserved acts and titles for most regulated health professions. The Ministry disbands the Council shortly after it releases these final reports; reference Safe Choices |
| 2003 |
Acting on the Council's recommendations, the government makes a number of changes to the HPA by way of the Health Professions Amendment Act, 2003 (introduced as Bill 62 (2003) which received Royal Assent on October 23, 2003. Further amendments were made by another amendment act, introduced as Bill 81 (2003), having to do with the regulation of pharmacists. Most but not all of these amendments were proclaimed into force by the end of 2005. An unofficial redline consolidation of the HPA showing the amendments is available at the Ministry's website; reference HPA Redline |
| August 2005 |
With the changes to the HPA in place, the Ministry starts to designate under the Act those professions that were regulated by separate statues. Registered nurses and nurse practitioners are so designated on August 19, 2005. A link to the RN and NP designation regulation can be found at RN Regulation. |
| November 2005 |
Speaking at the National Symposium on Counsellor Regulation (see Stream #6, below), the new Executive Director for Legislation and Professional Regulation explains that the Ministry's first priority is to bring all the health professions currently regulated by dedicated professional statutes under the HPA. With the designation of nursing in August, the remaining professions to be designated are chiropractors, dentists (and dental technicians), hearing aid dispensers, medical doctors, optometrists, pharmacists and podiatrists. The second priority will be to update the scopes of practice of the dozen or so health professions that were designated under the HPA in the 1990s. Once this is done, the Ministry will look at the designation of the remaining professions the Council recommended be regulated, including counsellors. |
| Spring 2006 |
Amendments to the HPA are introduced in the Legislature by Bill #29 (2006), to enact the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2006. These changes address the regulation fo health profession cofporations and provide for the continuation of colleges for chiropractors, dentists, physicians and pharmacists under the HPA when theose professions are eventually designated under the Act. |
| August 2006 |
The amendements to the HPA that added section 52.1 to the Act are approved by the Legislature, but - as of this date - have not yet been proclaimed into force. The net effect of this new section would make it illegal for practitioners who arenot members of HPA colleges to use the adjectives "registered", "licensed" or "certified" (or similar adjectives) in their occupational titles. This unproclaimed section has particular implications for counselling therapists in BC. Some counsellors currently use these adjectives under the authority of grants that were given to their professional associations under either the Society Act or the federal Trade-marks Act. Other counsellors have been using these titles for many years and the public is thus very familiar with their usage. The Ministry has made it clear that, once section 52.1 is proclaimed into force, it would expect all counsellors to stop using titles with the prohibited adjectives regardless of past usage. |
| November 2006 |
The Ministry of Health released for public comment draft versions of four regulations that will designate chiropractors, dentists, medical practitioners and pharmacists (respectively) under the HPA, as well as a proposed Reserved Actions Regulation. These proposed regulations set out a new mechanism for allocating reserved actions (or variations on them) to each profession. The proposed Reserved Actions Regulation does not list anything that could be construed as a reserved action of psychotherapy. |
| May 2007 |
The Ministry releases for public comment the proposed Speech and Hearing Health Professionals Regulation, which will designate audiology, speech-language pathology and hearing instrument dispensing as three distinct professions within a single "umbrella" college. |
THE APPLICATIONS, REVIEW AND FINAL REPORT
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| March, 1992 |
BCACC forms a working group to start to prepare an application to designate clinical counsellors under the HPA. |
| January 1993 |
The BC Association for Marriage and Family Therapy files an application to the Council for the designation of marriage and family therapists as a health profession under the HPA. |
| June 1993 |
The BCACC files its application for the designation of clinical counsellors. [ A copy of the BCACC application can be obtained by contacting the Victoria office.] |
| April 1994 |
The Canadian Professional Counsellors Association files an application for designation of professional counsellors. |
| January 1995 |
The BC Art Therapy Association files an application for the designation of art therapists. |
| September 1995 |
The Council circulates a public consultation letter concerning the counselling applications received to date. The Council decides to merge the applications from the BCAMFT, BCACC, CPCA and BCATA, along with the BC Society Canadian Association of Rehabilitation Personnel (applied in August 1992). |
| November 20 & 21, 1995 |
A two-day public hearing on the five merged designation applications held by the Council in Vancouver. |
| 1996 |
The Council continues its deliberations on the five applications for designation of counselling under the HPA. |
| February 1997 |
The Council issues its final report, Recommendations on the Designation of Counselling, to the Minister of Health. In brief, while Council found that counselling was a health profession, as defined under the HPA, and there was a public interested in regulating counselling, the Council did not recommend designation. The Council felt there was too much diversity in education, training and services among the counsellors from the five merged applications and an acceptable collective leadership may not emerge. Instead, the Council recommended that there be voluntary but automatic registration with no entry requirements--the approach used in Washington State to regulate counsellors. |
CREATING THE TASK GROUP - PREPARING THE JOINT RESPONSE
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| November 1997 |
George Bryce prepares an analysis of the Council's final report for consideration by the BCACC Board. |
| Spring, 1998 |
BCACC initiates dialogue with the Ministry, pointing-out the deficiencies in the Council's final report and recommending designation of counselling under the HPA. Direct meetings are held between the Association's executive and Ministry officials. David Logan is hired to help the Ministry respond to the Council's final report. |
| July 1998 |
The Ministry issues David Logan's Discussion Paper on the Regulation of Counsellors which asks how counselling could be regulated and how government should respond to the concerns expressed by the Council in its final report. A copy of this paper may be obtained by contacting the Ministry of Health Planning, Legislation and Professional Regulation Branch. |
| August 1998 |
BCACC starts to contact other professional organizations that represent counsellors for the purposes of preparing a collective response to the Discussion Paper from as many organizations as possible. |
| October 9, 1998 |
The Task Group for Counsellor Regulation holds its first meeting to ascertain whether the participants could work together to develop a joint response to the Discussion Paper. |
| November 1998 |
Task Group issues its Joint Response to the Discussion Paper on the Regulation of Counsellors . In this response, the Task Group explains why it is in the public interest to designate counselling under the HPA, proposes a two-tier registration model (entry level, then specialized counsellors) and describes the types of competencies that counsellors should possess. George Bryce sends Alan Moyes a cover letter which explains the central elements of the Task Group's proposal and explains that Task Group believes that a competency-based screening process will provide the public with the greatest assurance of quality counselling and psychotherapy services by registrants. |
| March 1999 |
The member organizations of the Task Group pledge financial support for the creation of a new College of Counselling Therapists. |
NEGOTIATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT AND RELATED EVENTS
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| 1999 |
The Ministry for Children and Families begins its own process to establish a legislative framework to regulate social workers and other social service personnel. The Task Group was not invited to join this group and none of its member organizations were involved in preparing its report. |
| November 1999 |
MCF issued its Report of the Working Group on Regulation of Social Service Professions. [A copy of this report can be obtained by contacting the Ministry of Child and Family Development.] The MCF Working Group ignores the Council's earlier finding that counselling was a health profession and instead recommends counselling be regulated along with social services occupations under the auspices of a new "super regulatory body" to be administered by MCF. |
| January 31, 2000 |
George Bryce writes to Alan Moyes reporting on a conversation with a senior MCF official and expressing concern about the implications of the MCF Working Group Report - Concerns of MCF. |
| Spring 2000 |
As a result of the MCF Working Group report, work on the designation of counselling within the Ministry of Health comes to a halt. Ministry officials are reluctant to move forward with that designation regulation if there was no support from MCF. (See part 1 and part 2 of the letter from Alan Moyes). In turn, MCF wants the Task Group to support their initiative and to help them work out the substantial problems associated with the regulation of social workers and other social service occupations, as documented in the Working Group report (see letter from Jeremy Berland). Counsellors are thus caught in a bureaucratic stalemate. |
| September 22, 2000 |
Task Group representatives meet with senior MCF officials to explain that designation of counselling under the HPA should not be predicated on MCF first establishing new legislation to regulate social service occupations. And that it is not in the public interest to have counselling regulated under new social service professional statute to be administered by MCF. A Shortcomings and Solutions Commentary is prepared in support of this meeting. |
| October 5, 2000 |
George Bryce sends Alan Moyes a Report of a Meeting between the Task Group and MCF officials . The concerns of MCF and summarized, as is the position of the Task Group on each issue. |
| November 2000 |
There are discussions (by phone and email) between the Ministry and the Task Group representatives, with the objective of proceeding with a regulation to designate counsellors under the HPA. Issues such as MCF's separate regulatory initiative, the governance structure of the new College, composition of the first and subsequent Board of the College, occupational titles, scope of practice, reserved acts and the College of Psychologists' master's level registration category are identified. |
| November 24, 2000 |
Task Group holds meeting to discuss designation options, the designation process, implementation issues for the first board, the Agreement on Internal Trade and a timetable for implementation. A Summary of a Meeting is prepared and communicated to the Ministry. |
| December 1, 2000 |
Task Group representatives meet with Ministry of Health officials to discuss the issues that need to be resolved before designation can take place. The Ministry reaffirmed its intention to proceed with designation of counsellors under the HPA., but indicated it may consult with the Council beforehand and that MCF's concerns may still cause problems. |
| March 2001 |
The HPC issues Safe Choices and recommends that psychologists be granted the reserved act of "making a diagnosis, identifying a mental or psychological disorder, dysfunction or condition as the cause of signs or symptoms of the individual." (E.g. "psychological diagnosis" reserved act, recognizing that it is not intended to be granted exclusively to psychologists.) (See Psychologists Scope of Practice Preliminary Report - IIIB Reserved Acts) |
| April 3, 2001 |
Ministry of Health Planning officials provided the Task Group with a confidential working draft of a regulation to designated counselling therapists under the HPA, which contains a scope of practice definition for counselling therapy and an occupational title for the exclusive use of college registrants, but does not contain a series of titles for each counselling specialty or a "psychological diagnosis" reserved act. |
| May 14, 2001 |
After meeting earlier in the month, the Task Group submits a detailed response to the Ministry's confidential draft regulation. Because of a confidentiality agreement, the full text of this submission cannot be posted. However, the wording the Group proposed to the government is not bound by that agreement, so an edited version of the submission is provided here - Commentary on the Draft Designation Regulation. |
| May 2001 |
The Council submits its final report on the Designation of Early Childhood Education. The Council concluded that ECEs were not health professionals, as defined under the HPA, and therefore they should not be designated. However, the Council did undertake an assessment of their application and recommended that the Ministry for Children and Families develop new legislation to regulate ECEs and other social service professionals who work with children. |
| Summer to Fall 2001 |
Task Group representatives continue to dialogue with Ministry of Health officials with the objective of pursuing designation of counselling therapists under the HPA. |
| November 14, 2001 |
George Bryce sends a letter to Helen Morrison, manager of legislation for the Ministry of Child and Family Development asking specific questions regarding the regulation of early childhood educators and its implications for the designation of counselling therapists. No formal response to that enquiry is provided in reply. |
| 2002 |
At various times during this year, Jim Browne and George Bryce send repeated letters to the Hon. Sindi Hawkins, Minister of Health Planning, requesting a meeting to discuss the anticipated designation of counselling therapists under the HPA. The Minister does not respond to any of those requests. |
| January 2003 |
A meeting is finally arranged between the Task Group and Hon. Sindi Hawkins, Minister of Health Planning. A Backgrounder is prepared in anticipation of a discussion concerning designation, composition of the first board and entry requirements. |
| February 3, 2003 |
Representatives of the Task Group meet with the Hon. Sindi Hawkins, Minister of Health Planning, and Alan Moyes, executive director of legislation and professional regulation. Instead of discussing designation, the Minister advised the Group that she will not proceed with designation until the Ministry of Child and Family Development has developed its regulatory model for social service professionals or that Minister would not otherwise object to counsellors being regulated under the HPA before social service professionals are regulated under new legislation. |
| February 12, 2003 |
A Discussion Paper summarizes the challenges the Task Group now faces in trying to convince the Ministry of Child and Family Development that it is in the public interest to designate counselling therapists under the HPA, and not wait until MCFD has developed its regulatory model for social service professionals. |
| March 10, 2003 |
A meeting between Task Group representatives and MCFD officials is held to discuss the Ministry's initiatives and the Group's concerns (see Report of a Meeting). |
| June 2003 |
In May 2003, the Minister of Health Planning introduced amendments to the HPA that would prohibit persons who are not registered members of HPA colleges from using adjectives like "registered" in their title. The proposed amendments included an exemption for persons who belong to organizations that are approved by the Minister. On June 11th, the BCACC filed an Occupational Title Protection Application to secure the exclusive use of the title "Registered Clinical Counsellor" under the Society Act so that the Association could be granted an exemption under proposed clause 52.1(3)(a) until such time as counsellors are designated under the HPA.
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| September 17, 2003 |
After many months of waiting, the MCFD consultant met with representatives of the Task Group to explain that Ministry's position on the designation of counselling. In brief, MCFD will no longer protest the designation of the profession under the HPA. The Ministry of Health Planning will now seek approval in principal from the Cabinet for the designation of counselling. Read the Report of a Meeting for more details.
|
| December 2003 |
The Task Group received a copy of an October 27, 2003 letter from Chris Haynes (DM, MCFD) to Penny Ballem (DM, MHP) wherein Mr. Haynes advised that MCFD "has no objections to consideration of counsellors for regulation under the [HPA]." That decision cleared a major roadblock within government for the designation of counselling under the HPA.
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| October & November 2004 |
George Bryce writes to Alan Moyes, executive director of legislation and professional development, and later Jim Browne writes to the Hon. Colin Hansen, Minister of Health Services, advising them of the work of the Task Group toward designation of the professions under the HPA. (See COLLEGE ORGANIZATION AND ENTRY REQUIREMENTS, below.) On behalf of the Group, they ask for an agreement in principle from government on designation of counsellors under the HPA. In other words, before the Group commits more resources to developing the full competencies profile for counsellors, the members want some assurance their further efforts will not be in vain.
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| November 2006 |
With the release of four draft designation regulations and the proposed Reserved Actions Regulation (see above), the Ministry's next priority is to amend the numerous regulations that currently designate professions under the HPA along the lines recommended by the Health Professions Council in 2001. Until the changes to these existing scopes of practice have been completed, the Ministry will not devote its limited resources to designating counselling (and other currently unregulated professions) under the HPA. |
| June 2007 |
Ministry officials advise Task Group counsel that, as a prerequisite for moving forward with designation, it expects all the counselling organizations in BC to cooperate to establish a set of competency-based standards for generalist registration (including setting academic training requirements) that would be as inclusive as possible, while also ensuring that registrants at the entry-to-practice level would have sufficient competencies to provide counselling therapy in a safe and ethical fashion. |
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| 1999 to 2000 |
The issue of whether the first board of the new College should set a master's degree as the minimum entry requirement for applicants or use a competency-based assessment model has been discussed within and outside the Task Group since its inception. While the entry requirements will be an issue that the first board of the new College will have the exclusive authority to decide, these discussions will help to inform that decision. |
| March 1999 |
Jim Browne prepares a set of Recommendations of the Core Competencies for Certified Counsellors for discussion within the Task Group. |
| January 12, 2000 |
Jim Browne and George Bryce co-author an Open Electronic Letter explaining the consensus that had been achieved within the Task Group on core competencies. This letter is later posted at the CCA(BC) website. |
| 2001 |
Task Group starts to identify the entry requirements for persons wanting to become members of the anticipated College of Counselling Therapists. The objective is to prepare a registration model that could be presented for consideration by the first board of the new College. A May 15th Discussion Paper on Entry Requirements is prepared in anticipation of a full Task Group meeting to discuss this issue. |
| June 13, 2001 |
First meeting between the Task Group and representatives of public, post-secondary educational programs that currently teach clinical counselling and related fields at the graduate level (see Summary Meeting Notes ). |
| November 2001 |
At the June 13th meeting, each member of the Task Group agrees to set out their vision of the registration of counsellors in the new College. The four proposals that were received during the summer were then compiled by George Bryce and compared to each other. The result was a Comparison of Proposals and a Reporting Letter to Jim Browne . Proposals that were received from other members after this date were not compared, not has this comparison be updated. For example, the September 2002 submission from the CCA(BC) is posted at this link. |
| December 2003 |
Based on developments at this time with other professions that are also seeking designation under the HPA, the Task Group concludes that the Ministry wants to see counsellors reach agreement on the major issues (e.g. registration criteria, classes of registration, etc.) before it will take the question of designation to the Minister or Cabinet. Rather than leaving these issues to the first board of a college to resolve after designation has taken place, the Group agrees to try to resolve these issues. A major challenge for the Group is to work out the details concerning a competency-based registration model that could be used to establish different classes of registrants. |
| January 5, 2004 |
A discussion paper is prepared for the Task Group by George Bryce and Dr. David Cane, titled A Process for Setting Entry Standards. Entry Standards Jan. 2004 This paper discusses a process and outlines the issues that need to be addressed in terms of setting registration standards for the long anticipated College. |
| April 26, 2004 |
The Task Group meets to discuss the proposed process for setting registration standards. At this meeting, the Group makes the following decisions: o the Group affirms its commitment to a competency-based registration model first proposed in the 1998 Joint Response;o the Group adopts in principle the use of competency profiles for counselling therapists, as outline in the Bryce/Cane January 5, 2004 discussion paper;o the Group will work out a plan of action, budget, etc. for developing the counselling competency profiles, that will be subject to final approval by the member organizations; o once the competency profiles have been developed, that document will inform the Group as to what type of registration model could be employed by the new college. |
| Summer 2004 |
A special Working Committee is struck to begin the work on identify the general competencies for counselling therapy common to all counsellors practicing in BC. Under the guidance of Dr. Cane, the Committee develops 72 statements of general competencies for counselling therapists. For each of these general competency statements, the committee then ascertains whether a competency was or was not uniformly met by the various counselling organizations. The committee also assigns each competency to one or more of three domains of learning, using Bloom's Taxonomy (i.e., cognitive, psychomotor and/or affective). |
| September 17, 2004 |
The Task Group meets to consider the report prepared by the Working Committee on general competencies for counsellors. At the end of the meeting, the Group agrees to pursue the development of a registration model for the new College, using a single-entry class that would reflect the Statement of Common General Competencies. (A copy of this statement can be obtained by contacting Jim Browne, care of the BCACC office.) In addition, the Group agrees in principle to take the next step in the process - the development of a full set of specific competencies for counselling therapists, commonly known as competency profile, that would be based on the general statements. This work would provide more detailed specifications (perhaps 500 or so specific competency statements) that would, in turn, create a clear, measurable and defensible entry-level registration standard for counselling therapists to be regulated in BC. |
| November 2004 |
The Canadian Professional Counsellors Association leaves the Task Group, having earlier given the Group an ultimatum that the other member organizations did not accept. Specifically, the CPCA wanted the Group before the competency profile was even competed to agree that a Master's degree would not become an entry requirement for the new College at any level of registration. The CPCA further stated that it would not pay its share of the Group's past or future costs until the Group agreed to this demand. |
| September 13 2005 |
The Task Group adopts a new, modified scope of practice for counseling therapists and approves a draft of the Competency Profile for subsequent validation. |
| January 2006 |
After the draft Competency Profile was presented at the National Symposium (see below), a number of Canadian provinces asked to participate in the validation of that draft. |
|
May 2006
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Following validation and refinement by means of consultation with practicing counsellors and therapists throughout BC, the Task Group approves the entry-to-practice Competency Profile for the Counselling Therapist. |
| November 2006 |
The Task Group hosts a workshop entitled Implementing Statutory Regulation - Opportunities and Challenges for the Professional Associations. At the Workshop several professional associations discuss developing “Specialty” competency profiles that build on the Counselling Therapist profile and define their unique, specialized fields of practice. |
| November 2006 |
The Competency Profile is validated by counsellors in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Then the New Brunswick Professional Counsellors Association, the Nova Scotia Association of Counselling Therapists (formerly the Nova Scotia Association of Professional Counsellors) and the Prince Edward Island Counselling Association endorse the Competency Profile and advocate that it become the entry-to-practice regulatory standard in these provinces. |
| April 2007 |
The Canadian Counselling Association undertakes a validation of the Competency Profile with its members nationally, in both the English and French languages. The result further endorses the applicability of the profile across Canada. |
| May 2007 |
The Task Group publishes an updated version of the Competency Profile. The updated document removes specific references to BC, replacing them with language applicable across the country; and it adds a definition of Entry-To-Practice Proficiency. |
NATIONAL EVENTS AND INITIATIVES
| Date |
Event and commentary (with links) |
| October 28, 2005 |
In the Summer of 2005, the Ontario Minister of Health asked the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council ("Ontario Council") to provide recommendations on the regulation of psychotherapy and psychotherapists. In response to the Ontario Council's call for submissions, the BC Task Group files a Commentary on the 22 policy questions posed by the Council. In brief, the Task Group recommends that Ontario consider the model for regulating counsellors that is being developed in BC. (BC psychologists had tried to have psychotherapy become a reserved action in BC, but the BC Council did not accept this in its 2001 report.) |
| November 10, 2005 |
In anticipation of the National Symposium (see below), representatives from different provinces prepare a Summary Report on the Regulation of Counsellors across Canada. This 63-page report summarizes the current state of counselor regulation province-by-province, and identifies the major challenges that counsellors face in convincing governments outside of Quebec to move forward with regulating their profession. It also lists a series of policy questions that were later discussed at the Symposium. |
| November 14, 2005 |
The Ontario Coalition of Mental Health Professionals (the "Ontario Coalition") files it submission responding to the Ontario Council's 22 policy questions on the regulation of psychotherapy. In brief, the Ontario Coalition adopts the two-tiered regulatory model first proposed by the Task Group for BC in 1998. See Ontario Coalition Submission. |
| November 21 & 22, 2005 |
The first National Symposium on Counsellor Regulation is held in Vancouver, involving representatives from every province in Canada, as well as BC and federal government officials, to discuss strategies for regulating counselors. The proceedings from this well-attended and very successful Symposium are available at National Symposium Proceedings. |
| December 2005 |
The Quebec government release a report prepared by a committee of experts on the topic of modernizing the practice of mental health and human relations professionals, titled Modernisation de la pratique professionnelle en santé mentale et en relations humaines. In this report, the Committee recommends a definition of psychotherapy, control over the title Psychotherapist, a reserved action of psychotherapy, the competencies needed for providing psychotherapy, and the best model to regulate the provision of this service to the public. |
| April 2006 |
In Chapter 7 of its report, Regulation of Health Professions in Ontario: New Directions, Ontario’s Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council defines psychotherapy as being distinct from counselling, and recommends that psychotherapy become an “enforceable scope of practice” that would be performed only by registrants of a new College of Psychotherapists, as well as psychologists, physician-psychotherapist, clinical social workers and nurse-psychotherapists. |
| December 12, 2006 |
A proposed Psychotherapy Act is introduced in the Ontario Legislature by way of Bill #171 (2006) to enact the Health Systems Improvements Act, 2006 at Schedule Q. When proclaimed into force, the Psychotherapy Act will establish the College of Psychotherapists of Ontario and provide the legislative foundation for regulating psychotherapy in Ontario. For background on this proposed new Act, see the Discussion Paper. |
| Summer 2007 |
In May 2007, the Ontario Legislative Committee recommends changes to the proposed Psychotherapy Act so that social workers also be granted the right to perform psychotherapy as a controlled act (as was recommended by Ontario’s Advisory Council in April 2006), and that name of the new College be amended to read “the College of Psychotherapists and Mental Health Therapists of Ontario”. These recommendations result in amendments to the Act, which then receives Royal Assent on June 4, 2007 (not yet proclaimed into force). Work begins on setting-up the Transition Council to establish the new College. |
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