What to expect:

The information on this page will help you understand what to expect and how things work during your appointments, including how to re-schedule appointments and late cancellation fees.

Purpose of the sessions:

We meet with clients for a number of reasons, to assess the nature of difficulties, provide treatment for a specific difficulty or problem, to provide feedback to clients about the results of an assessment, or to provide a second opinion to a client about a diagnosis, assessment results or treatment plan that may already have.

Booking appointments:

As a new client, we will initially schedule 4 appointments plus the initial intake appointment, (a) the intake appointment, (b) a first follow-up appointment, (c) a second follow-up appointment, (d) a third follow-up appointment and (e) a fourth follow-up appointment which is usually scheduled 2 weeks apart (therapist schedule permitting).

We schedule these initial appointments in order to ensure that you have dates and times that are most suitable for you as our schedules fill up rather quickly. As you continue with your appointments, we encourage you to always book at least 3 to 4 appointments ahead of time as the schedules can fill up very quickly. This ensures that you are scheduled for the date and time that is most suitable for you. It is strongly recommended that you schedule these as soon as possible by contacting our office administrator at the end of your session.

Before your first session:

At or before your first session, we will ask you to fill out a 2-page questionnaire about who you are, how to contact you, who your family doctor is and a little bit about the kinds of difficulties you are having. The form is typically sent out with your confirmation email once appts have been set, or you are welcome to fill out the questionnaire in our offices before your appointment. When you arrive, you will see copies of the form on the table in the waiting room. You will need to arrive about 20 minutes earlier to fill out the form before your first meeting. Filling this out before we meet will leave us a bit more time to get to know you, but we are happy to fill this form out together when we meet.

In the waiting room:

When you arrive, you will notice some music and white noise playing in the waiting room. We use white noise to ensure that conversations in our offices remain confidential.

Washrooms:

Washrooms are located on the second floor just as you pass through the door to the second floor. The washrooms are locked. The access codes to the washrooms are posted on the bulletin board in our reception room.

Your first session:

Part of your first session will be devoted to reviewing how counselling works, what we do as licensed psychologists, what our credentials are, how confidentiality works and what the limits on confidentiality are. The other part of the first session is devoted to understanding the nature of your difficulties and concerns, how we can be helpful and how we will proceed.

Length of sessions:

A single session typically lasts 50 minutes, after which we will spend 10 minutes writing a note which documents your visit and what we did.

Further sessions:

Whether or not you require additional sessions will depend on what you would like to achieve in treatment. Questions about parenting can often be addressed quickly. Other difficulties, such as clinical depression or workplace stress, for example, may take several weeks to address or in some instances even longer. However, most people can expect to achieve some degree of real improvement in about 4 to 6 weeks. Again, depending on the difficulties you are experiencing, a full recovery can take much longer, but some degree of improvement should happen quickly.

After your first session, we will be able to give you a general idea of how much treatment may be necessary. No matter how severe your difficulties are, we will always work towards very clear goals that can be achieved in four-week blocks of time. At the end of four weeks, we'll evaluate how things have progressed and add additional time as needed or desired.

Scheduling:

We try to schedule clients into fixed times from one week to the next. This means if we meet at 4 PM, we'll try to always meet at 4 PM as long as you need to. However, conflicts occur that make this too difficult to achieve because of therapist schedules, so we do ask for your patience and understanding for scheduling.

Session notes:

The purpose of the note is to document that we met on a certain day, record the nature of your visit, to briefly describe what we discussed and what type of assessment or treatment was provided, and to record any risks or concerns that may have been present. Not everything we discuss in a session is recorded as essential information.

Fees and cancellation policy

Our fee is $210.00 per hour, payable by debit or credit card(VISA and MASTERCARD only WE DO NOT ACCEPT AMERICAN EXPRESS), for which a receipt is issued.

In case of an unexpected situation where you may not be able to attend your scheduled appointment, we require 48 hours (2 business days- SATURDAY and SUNDAY do not apply) notice so that we may be able to offer the time to another patient. We have patients on our waiting list wishing to book an appointment, therefore last-minute cancellations are only accepted in the case of an emergency. A $100.00 fee will be applied to your account for any cancelled/re-scheduled/missed appointments without the required 2 business days.

Confidentiality:

The information you provide during any consultation, meeting or session is private and confidential. That means that we are not allowed to talk to anyone else unless we have your written permission to do so. Even the fact that you have consulted us as clients are confidential. That means we are not even allowed to tell someone else that you have consulted us unless we have your permission to do so. There are however some exceptions to confidentiality. Whether or not confidentiality can and should be broken is governed by a number of federal and provincial laws and by the regulatory body, the College of Psychologists in Ontario, which governs how we practise as psychologists in the Province of Ontario. There are five categories in which confidentiality can be waived, without your permission.

1. Harm to Self. If you are at immediate risk for ending your life or committing suicide, we (as registered psychologists) are expected to and will take all appropriate steps to ensure your safety and reduce the risks of your harming yourself.

2. Harm to Others: If you are at immediate risk for harming or injuring someone else, we (as registered psychologists) are expected to and will take all appropriate steps to ensure the safety of others. This could include informing that person of the threat to his or her well-being as well as informing the police of that risk.

3. Abuse: As part of your assessment, we may ask if you have ever been physically, emotionally or sexually abused by someone. If you are under the age of 16 and say that you have been abused by a specific person, then we are required by law to report that abuse to the Children's Aid Society, which will then determine whether or not any further investigation or action is required or needed.

4. Court Order: Although extremely unlikely, there is the possibility that your record, chart or file containing information about you or your visits can be requested to be reviewed by a court of law. In the event that we receive that request, our response will be to deny the request, arguing that your record is confidential and that the information cannot be released. This will allow you the opportunity to hire a lawyer to grant us time to negotiate what information (if any or all) should be released to the court.

5. Audit: Although rare, there is the possibility that your record, chart or file containing information about you or your visits can be audited by the College of Psychologists of Ontario. Each year, the College of Psychologists of Ontario audits the files of registered psychologists to ensure that psychologists practise psychology in a responsible and ethical manner. The auditors are bound by law to respect your confidentiality and are in fact not interested in you as much as they are interested in us.


Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to us. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the services we provide. We strive to be open and transparent regarding how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to: an individual’s personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status); health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them); or, activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is different from business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number). This is not protected by privacy legislation.

COLLECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

Primary Purposes

We collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. We collect information such as client’s health history including personal and family history, physical condition and function, and social, personal, and work or school situations. For our clients, the primary purpose of collecting personal information is to enable the Psychologist or Psychological Associate to make sound clinical decisions regarding evaluation or treatment. A second primary purpose may include ongoing monitoring of symptoms and/or distress levels to examine changes in psychological functioning over time during the course of treatment.

Related and Secondary Purposes

Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:

To invoice clients for services that were not paid for at the time or to collect unpaid accounts.

Psychologists in supervised or autonomous practice are regulated by the College of Psychologists of Ontario. The College may inspect some records and interview staff as part of their regulatory activities to work in the public interest. The College of Psychologists of Ontario has its own strict privacy obligations.

The costs of the goods and services provided to our clients are sometimes paid by third parties (e.g., WSIB, MVA insurers, lawyers, private rehabilitation companies). These third party payers often have the client’s consent or legislative authority to direct us to disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.

We collect your personal health information directly from you, except: a) when you have provided consent to obtain such information from others (e.g., reports of previous assessments or other services); and b) where the law requires or allows us to collect information without your consent (e.g., in an urgent situation, when information is needed to prevent potential harm).

We only collect information from you that we believe is reasonably necessary to provide you with services. If we collect information from you for any other purpose (e.g., research), it will be done only with your knowledge and consent. If you decide that you do not wish to provide additional information that is not necessary for your service, you can refuse and there will be no impact on the services that you receive.

Protecting Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting personal information, and are committed to protect the security of your personal information. We have put in place commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use your personal information.

Your personal information may be stored on our database servers or hosted by third parties who have entered into agreements with us that require them to observe our Privacy Policy. Data centers are designed to be physically secure and protected from unauthorized access by unauthorized persons. Although we will make reasonable efforts to protect personal information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party could find a way to thwart our security systems.

We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

  • Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area

  • Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.

  • Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.

  • Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or has identifiers removed or is encrypted.

  • Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfil their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.

  • External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.

  • If your associate were to become incapacitated or die, your records would be placed in the care of another psychologist for protection, not examination. If you were to see another psychologist, your records could be sent to her or him at your request.

All staff members are allowed to have access to information about you only on a “need-to-know” basis. A staff person who knows you personally is required to inform us of that relationship, and is not allowed to have access to your record unless there is an emergency or you give consent.

Your record occasionally may be accessed for licensing, or accreditation purposes (e.g., College of Psychologists). However, we will not allow any information that identifies you to be taken from our premises for these purposes. All persons involved in such activities are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of any accessed information.

Limits To Protection Of Private Information

Limits to the protection of private information include:

  • Harm to Self: If a therapist has reason to believe that a client is in danger of physically harming him/herself in ways that may be life-threatening, a therapist will have to make a referral to a hospital and/or contact a family member, close other, or another person such as a police officer who may be able to help protect the client. There may be other emergency health care related circumstances where disclosure is reasonably necessary for the protection of health, in which case a therapist will disclose personal information to other health care professionals as long as a client has not expressly prohibited the therapist from doing so.

  • Harm to others: If a therapist has reason to believe that a client is seriously threatening physical violence against another person, or if a client has a history of physically violent behaviour, and if a therapist believes that a client is an actual threat to the safety of another person, the therapist is required to take some action (such as contacting the police, notifying the other person, seeking hospitalization, or some combination of these actions) to ensure that the other person is protected.

  • Abuse/Neglect: If a therapist has reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 is being abused or neglected, the therapist is legally obligated to report this situation to the Children’s Aid Society. Alternatively, if a therapist suspects or is informed of unlawful conduct that resulted in harm or risk of harm to a resident of a Long-Term Care Facility or Retirement Home, or that a resident is being harmed or is at risk of being harmed in any way (e.g., sexual or physical abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident’s funds), the therapist may be required to contact the applicable Ministry or Regulatory Authority and report all relevant information.

  • Sexual Abuse: If a therapist learns that a client has been sexually or physically abused by a member of the regulated health profession, the therapist is required to report this information in accordance with the guidelines of the therapist’s applicable regulatory college. The client’s name will not be released without his/her consent unless such release is court ordered.

  • Court Order: A therapist and clinical record can be subpoenaed by a court order. A therapist can be required to testify and give information obtained during sessions. Without a court order, this information would never be provided voluntarily without a client’s direct request or consent.

  • Quality Control:On occasion, a therapist may be randomly selected to participate in a Peer Assisted Review by his/her regulatory college (or another Regulatory Body). As part of this process, a file may be potentially reviewed by a member of the regulatory college. Regulatory colleges have privacy and security policies in place to protect personal information.

  • Supervision: A therapist may be supervised in his/her clinical work by a more senior colleague. A client will be informed of any such supervisory arrangement. That supervisor may access a client’s clinical file for the purposes of quality control.

When consenting to the disclosure of your personal health information, you may restrict us from sharing all or any part of your personal information. However, if, in our opinion, the information is reasonably necessary for another health service provider to provide appropriate service, we are required by law to inform the other provider that you have refused consent to provide some needed information.

Although the law allows access to personally identifiable health information for research purposes under strict conditions, it is our policy not to allow external researchers access to information that can be identified as belonging to you, unless you consent to such access.

Your Right of Access to your Personal Health Information Record

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to access any record of your personal health information, and to request copies of the information. If you believe that information in your record is not accurate, you may make a written request to correct your record. If we do not agree with the correction you request, you may file a notice of disagreement in your record.

Retention and Destruction of Personal Information

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. In order to protect your privacy, we do not keep personal information longer than recommended by the College of Psychologists of Ontario. We keep out client files for 10 years. If a recipient of our psychological services was younger than 18 years of age, we retain the files for 10 years past the former client’s 18th birthday. We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.



© 2022 Barrhaven Psychological Services
900 Greenbank Road, Suite 207, Nepean, Ontario K2J 1S8

T: 613 823 3876
E: info@barrhavenpsychservices.ca