CRPO Communiqué
May 2017
May 30, 2017

Message from the Registrar 

Deborah Adams
Registrar
As we finish up the renewal period at the College, some Members have been wondering about how fees are set and what they are used for, so I thought it would be helpful to provide some background information to all stakeholders to assist with understanding how Member fees are used.
 
As Member fees are the College's only source of income, they must provide the financial means to develop and manage all of the CRPO programs required by the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. Decisions around revenue are made after careful deliberation and in consideration of the College's responsibilities, which include:
We are always looking for ways to manage and cut costs, particularly when it comes to the administrative functions of the College. For instance, during the first year of operations, banking costs related to collecting fees from applicants and members were $4,000. If credit card payments had been used, the cost would have been $85,000 (for enrolment, monthly fees and transaction-based fees and added IT security and infrastructure) and these costs would necessarily have been passed on to Members in the fee structure.
 
CRPO's membership fees are the lowest of the five newly proclaimed colleges and among the lowest of all of the health regulatory colleges in the province. This is despite the fact that our membership is still in its growth stage. It is important to note that larger, more established colleges benefit from economies of scale that we do not yet have and so CRPO has made careful investments in technology and efficient operations in order to fulfil its mandate and operate in a way that provides excellent service to both the public and its Members, while keeping fees as low as possible. 
 Quick Links

In This Issue
Message from the Manager, Registration 

Since the grandparenting window closed on March 31, 2017, Registration staff are busier than ever reviewing applications. As a reminder, in addition to the applications that had already been submitted, from January 1st to March 31st we received over 2,400 new grandparenting applications. Given that volume, there will be an increased timeframe between the date the application was submitted and the start of a review. To minimize delays to processing for everyone, we are not able to respond to questions about when an individual application will be processed. Applicants can easily track the progress of the application through the review stages by checking the status indicator located on the application landing page (i.e. the page with hyperlinks to all the sections of the form) in their user account. 
 
What does each status mean?

Received:
Your application has been submitted successfully and is in the queue for processing; staff review has not yet begun.

Under Review:
Review of your application is now underway. A d etailed assessment is conducted to determine, first, whether the application is complete and, second, whether the applicant meets the minimum registration requirements.

C heck your e-mail inbox (including spam folders) regularly for the alerts CRPO sends when a message has been placed in your user account and be sure to respond to requests for clarification or more information as soon as possible.

Registrar Review:
First-level review of your application is complete; a second, senior-level review is in process.

Approved:
You have met the minimum requirements for registration; your application has been approved.

Recommend to Panel:
Applications that do not clearly meet the registration requirements, for one reason or another, are referred to a panel of the Registration Committee for a third-level review.

This review panel includes professional members of Council (that is, practicing Registered Psychotherapists) as well as publicly appointed members. Professional members bring their clinical perspective and experience to the process and work with the other panel members to ensure that registration decisions are fair and appropriate.

 
We thank you in advance for your patience while you await the outcome of the review of your application.
 
The regular route is now the primary route to registration with CRPO for anyone who wishes to practise as a Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario. For more information about the regular route, please visit the Information for Regular Applicants page of CRPO's website. On this page you will find:
The first step in the process is to create a user account on our application portal and complete the Professional Practice & Jurisprudence e-Learning (JRP) Module . It is important to remember that from the date of completion of the JRP Module, you have two years in which to submit your application for registration; otherwise you will be required to start the process again.
 
If you would like to see if a program you have taken, or one that you are considering, is recognized by CRPO as satisfying the education and training requirement, please review the Education Programs page of CRPO's website for an up-to-date list - you will see that five independent private training programs as well as five university masters programs have already been recognized.
 
Providing, or thinking about providing, clinical supervision?
Practitioners of psychotherapy will be aware of the benefits of receiving ongoing clinical supervision throughout their careers and many choose to offer their services as a clinical supervisor as a way to give back to the profession. If you are providing clinical supervision of psychotherapy, or are working towards being able to do so, it would be advisable for you to consider the full list of activities that could comprise directed learning around supervision when deciding how to best ensure you are prepared to take on this responsibility, and that the activities are relevant and support the goal of public protection. Directed learning can include:
  • course work
  • supervised practice as a clinical supervisor
  • individual/peer/group learning
  • independent study that includes structured readings 
If you have any questions about applying to CRPO, education programs or supervision, please contact us at info@crpo.ca
 
Monica McPherson
Manager, Registration
Council Elections - Nominations Closed, Voting Starts in June

Nominations have now closed for this year's Council elections. The following candidates were acclaimed in their respective districts:
  • District 3 - East, Shelley Briscoe-Dimock
  • District 6 - Central West, Glorie Taponeswa Chimbganda
Multiple candidates submitted nominations for District 2 - North and District 4 - Central East, so elections will take place for these districts. Candidate Statements will be posted on the Council Elections page prior to the start of voting.

Voting will begin June 1, 2017 and will continue until 12:00 p.m. on Friday, June 30, 2017. Once voting opens, Members who are eligible to vote in these two districts can access their ballots using the "Elections" tab in their CRPO user account . Members can find their Electoral District, as determined by their primary practice site (or residence if not practising), in the "Elections" tab.

If you have any questions about the Council elections, please contact:  elections@crpo.ca
Practice Advisor and FAQs

CRPO offers a practice advisory service to respond to enquiriesabout professional practice, ethics and standards. The service provides information and resources to Members and the public to assist with a variety of practice situations.
 
The Practice Advisor role is staffed by a practising Registered Psychotherapist. The Practice Advisor welcomes your questions and concerns and can be contacted as follows:
 
Cindy Elkerton, RP
E-mail: practice@crpo.ca    
Phone: 416-945-3690   
Fax: 416-874-4079
 
Note: The Practice Advisor does not deal with concerns about the service being offered by a particular Member, complaints or professional misconduct. These should be directed to complaints@crpo.ca.
 
I n an effort to provide information and answers that are easily accessible for all, we will create FAQs about common topics and will post them on CRPO's website . Our first few FAQs will address straightforward topics that routinely appear in questions. Many topics in practice are not clear-cut, but it is important to be aware of basic principles and practice standards. In the future, we hope to take on more complex issues.
 
This month we posted our first Practice Advisory FAQ on the topic of 'Fees and Billing'. We hope it will be helpful.
Did you know?

With the increased focus on security of electronic information, organizations are becoming more and more vigilant about security and privacy of their information, as well as that of their clients/members. But it is important that Members take precautions as well to keep their personal information safe.
 
Since it is your user name and security question that allows for a password change in CRPO's database, you need to ensure that it is not something easily figured out by someone who is trying to hack into your account.
 
While CRPO's Member Management System will let you put a simple six letter or number password, please ensure you are using letters and numbers, as well as a symbol, and that your security question is not easy to figure out. For example, an answer to "What is your favourite food?" could be "the Canadian Fl@g" or "Fun$90"; it should be something you will easily remember but never actually the correct answer to the question. We encourage all Members who don't already have a security question answer set-up in this manner to log into their CRPO account and update it, and to change the answer on at least a yearly basis.
 
By taking these steps we are all ensuring a more secure College database.

Please do not unsubscribe.
CRPO works on the assumption that our Members receive all of our e-mails. CRPO uses e-mail to communicate with Members about important College updates. If you choose to unsubscribe, it is then your responsibility to regularly check our website to keep yourself informed. 

It is the responsibility of each Member to make sure CRPO has your current contact information, updated within 30 days of a change, and ensure that the organization you work for does not block CRPO emails.