The College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario
Newsletter | August 2021
In this issue…
  • COVID-19 Updates
  • Mental Health Support: Wellness Together Canada
  • Pandemic Q&A: Masking Requirements When Fully Vaccinated
  • Practice Q&A: Charging Fees for Releasing Client Records
  • Reminder: QA Screening Tool Coming Soon
  • July Poll Results: Source of College Updates
COVID-19 Updates
Directive #6: COVID-19 Vaccination Policy in Health Settings
In case you missed it: Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health issued Directive #6, which requires hospitals, home and community care service providers, and ambulance services to have a vaccination policy, with an implementation date of September 7, 2021.

The Ministry of Health has released a Resource Guide for Directive #6.
Links to COVID-19 information and resources are in the College's dedicated COVID-19 section of the website. The latest updates are noted at the top of the page.

Please continue to check the College and government websites for the latest updates. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Avoid missing important updates from the College by logging in to your member profile to update your contact information.
Wellness Together Canada
Mental health support
Did you know? The Government of Canada has a portal to help address the unprecedented rise in feelings of stress, anxiety and depression in Canada due to COVID-19 – Wellness Together Canada (WTC).

This portal offers access to free and confidential online mental health and substance use supports, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in both French and English. To date, over 1.4 million individuals across all provinces and territories have accessed the portal.

We know as occupational therapists that you help others with their health and wellness, and hope that you are taking care of yourself too!

  • Take time to check in with how you are feeling. Wellness Together Canada (WTC) offers free and confidential online mental health and substance use supports available 24/7, including 1 to 1 counselling: wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA/moving-beyond-anxiety

  • If you need someone to talk to, Wellness Together Canada offers phone counselling 24/7 in over 200 languages and it’s free!

For more information on confidential mental health and substance use support, visit: wellnesstogether.ca

View the fact sheets: English | Français 
Pandemic Q&A
Masking requirements when fully vaccinated
Question: If an occupational therapist and their client are fully vaccinated are masks still required?
Practice Q&A
Fees for releasing client records
Question: Can occupational therapists charge a fee for the release of client records?
Reminder: QA Screening
Coming soon
The College’s Quality Assurance (QA) Program continues to evolve as we strive to enhance the program. Later this month, 110 registrants will be selected (using risk-based selection) and will be notified that they will be participating in the pilot of the new screening tool.

In September, those registrants will receive additional information about the pilot. We will update our website with more information in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact qaprogram@coto.org.
Poll: Source of College Updates
July poll results
Last month we asked you: Where do you get most of your College news and updates?

Your top answer: Emails and monthly newsletter (130 respondents - 91.5%)

Thank you for participating. Poll questions will return in September. We appreciate your feedback and welcome comments at any time.
Do you know someone who would like to be added to our mailing list?
They can sign up here. Have additional comments or suggestions for the College email news? Send your thoughts to communicatons@coto.org.
Any changes to your profile information in the last 30 days? Make sure you update your profile.
DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE IF YOU ARE A REGISTRANT OF THE COLLEGE.

If registrants unsubscribe, they will be contacted to re-subscribe. The College communicates to occupational therapists by email regarding changes to standards, mandatory registration requirements, public consultations and more. We strive to keep communication relevant and to a minimum.

20 Bay Street, Suite 900, Toronto, ON · 416.214.1177 1.800.890.6570 · www.coto.org · info@coto.org