August 17th, 2004

1. New Practice Documents Published
2. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
3. AGM Education Session: Drawing the line - Professional Boundaries in O.T. Practice
4. Nominations For The COTBC Board Underway
5. Registration Renewal For 2004/2005
6. Working in the USA - Visa Credential Verification Certificate Now Required
7. COTBC practice guidelines are published
8. Opportunity for Registrant Feedback: Survey on Practice Guideline
9. New Resources
10. New privacy legislation now in force: Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)

New Practice Documents Published
The revised Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada - Second Edition (June 2003) and approved by the Board in October 2003 was recently published and sent to all registrants. This document replaces the current version in your registrant resources manual. The revised edition was an initiative of the Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy Regulatory Organizations (ACOTRO), funded by COTBC in partnership with four other provincial occupational therapy regulatory organizations (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec). All ten provincial regulatory organizations in Canada participated with in-kind resources including validation sessions by occupational therapists in every province. The result is a nationally validated, professionally sound document. This second edition expands on the performance indicators for each competency statement. This document continues to serve as a platform for future practice guidelines, advisory statements and programs such as Registration, Continuing Competency, Re-entry to Practice, and other quality assurance activities. A French version is available online.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)
The date for the COTBC AGM 2004 is set for November 6, 2004 and will be held at the Marriott Vancouver Airport Hotel, 7571 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC. The AGM will again be held in conjunction with the meeting of the British Columbia Society of Occupational Therapists (BCSOT). The College's Annual Report and more information about the meeting agenda and sessions will be sent out mid-September. The AGM provides an opportunity for meeting the Board and learning more about the College's activities over the past year. More details and registration forms will also be posted on the College website. In the meantime, read the next item on the Client Relations Committee's education session being held in conjunction with the COTBC AGM.

AGM Education Session: Drawing the line - Professional Boundaries in O.T. Practice
The Client Relations Committee will open this year's COTBC AGM with a two hour interactive educational seminar. The committee looks forward to sharing their work to date including a draft philosophy and the "professional boundaries" approach the Client Relations Committee is proposing for the prevention of misconduct of a sexual nature. (The Health Professions Act requires College's to establish guidelines for prevention of misconduct of sexual nature.)

Seminar participants will have, through small group work, the opportunity to discuss ethically challenging situations which could lead to misconduct of sexual nature between a therapist and a client.

Relevant scenarios will be solicited from seminar participants for inclusion in the committee's final "Guidelines" document.

Professional boundaries are relevant to all occupational therapists in BC and across all practice areas. This facilitated seminar will explore topics at the core of our everyday practice: What are professional boundaries? What constitutes a boundary violation? Who is responsible? How do we protect the public? How do we protect ourselves? We look forward to your attendance and to a thought provoking and stimulating morning seminar.

Nominations For The COTBC Board Underway
Terms of office for three Board members expire on January 31, 2005. Notice of election and nomination forms were mailed to all registrants with your 2004-2005 registration receipts/cards. Registrants have the opportunity to nominate a full registrant for the position of elected Board member for the term February 1, 2005 to January 31, 2007. A current elected board member may be nominated for re-election. Board members govern the affairs of the College within the scope of authority designated under the Health Professions Act, the Occupational Therapists Regulation and the College Bylaws. The Board, working as a whole is responsible for setting & monitoring the strategic directions for the College, approving programs and policies such as practice guidelines or continuing competency requirements, and ensuring the organization is meeting its public protection mandate. Contact the College or download the information to learn more about this important role. Nominations must be complete and submitted by 4:00 pm September 27, 2004.

For more information about the election process, click here

To download the Nomination Form, click here .

Registration Renewal For 2004/2005
Registration for 2004-2005 is complete. If the College did not receive your completed renewal form, fee and verification of liability insurance for renewal of your registration for 2004/2005 by July 31, 2004 your registration has been cancelled [Health Professions Act [s.21(3)(b)] and the bylaws of the College [s.54(4)]. You and your employer will be notified that effective August 1, 2004 your registration is cancelled and your name will be listed in the Fall issue of the College newsletter. Reinstatement to the register after July 31, 2004 is subject to an additional late fee penalty, and reinstatement to the register by the Board of the College of Occupational Therapists of British Columbia. You may not work as an O.T. or hold yourself out to be an occupational therapist unless you are registered with the College.

Working in the USA - Visa Credential Verification Certificate Now Required
The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) has asked that we inform individuals who are considering working in the USA that the rules have changed for those seeking temporary or permanent visas as well as those seeking NAFTA status. Regulations for new immigration legislation have been passed and went into effect July 25, 2004. Information on the changes and required forms can be obtained from the NBCOT website www.nbcot.org or by contacting international@nbcot.org or faxing a request to International Program (301) 869-8492.

COTBC practice guidelines are published
The college recently published its first Practice Guideline on Assigning of Service Components to Unregulated Support Personnel. COTBC practice guidelines are published to assist occupational therapists in meeting the Essential Competencies of Practice. They are designed to increase registrants' knowledge of their responsibilities; describe expectations for practice; define safe, ethical competent practice; and guide critical thinking for every day practice. Watch for the survey on the guideline for registrants to provide feedback to the College. It will be provided to registrants with the registration renewal mailing and will also be available online. The Standards Committee is responsible for developing practice guidelines and a guideline on "Documentation & Management of Client Records" (a working title) is currently underway".

Opportunity for Registrant Feedback: Survey on Practice Guideline
The College is requesting feedback from registrants on the recently published practice guideline on, "Assigning of Service Components to Unregulated Support Personnel". It was sent to all registrants in April. Your feedback by way of this survey will help the standards committee in a number of ways; identify any areas for further evaluation, refining the guideline or recommending development of other supports to assist in its use in everyday practice.

For more information and to download a copy of the survey, click here:
Practice Guideline Survey (PDF)

To complete the survey online, click here:
Practice Guideline - Online Survey

New Resources: The BC Medical Association has a number of online information and helpful tools developed in conjunction with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC and available at http://www.bcma.org/public/NewPrivacyLegislation_Public.htm or click here for full listing of links and resources.

New privacy legislation now in force: Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)
On January 1, 2004, new provincial privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection Privacy Act (PIPA) came into force in British Columbia. PIPA applies to the entire BC private sector, both for-profit and not-for-profit. PIPA governs how organizations may collect, use and disclose the personal information of clients and employees. Registrants of COTBC already have a duty of protection of personal privacy (duty of confidentiality) and registrants will be familiar the principles of the new privacy legislation. However, this legislation will affect registrants working in private practice, working for not-for-profit organizations or other agencies not covered by public sector privacy legislation (FOIPPA). It sets out specific rules for the private sector. It is every registrant's responsibility to know and comply with legislation that applies to their practice. Registrants should visit the following websites for more details of your responsibilities under this new personal information privacy legislation or seek other advice to ensure your practice is in compliance. Tools and helpful resources have been developed to assist organizations becoming compliant with the new PIPA legislation and can be found on our COTBC website. CLICK here to go to our links on privacy information and resources.