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Information About Funding for Therapy and Counselling

The Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 directs each health profession’s regulatory college to create and administer a fund for therapy and counselling for patients who have been sexually abused by a health professional or whom the Patient Relations Committee (PRC) deems to have been sexually abused if it is presented with sufficient evidence to support a reasonable belief that the patient was sexually abused. The legislation assigns responsibility for administering the fund to the PRC of each college. The Committee reviews each application, determines whether the applicant meets the eligibility criteria, and sets the level of funding allowed. At the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Committee is made up of two physicians and two members of the public.

You will be asked to keep confidential all information obtained through the application for funding process, including the fact that funding has been granted and the reasons given by the Committee for granting the funding. Furthermore, a decision by the PRC that you are eligible for funding does not constitute a finding against the member and shall not be considered by any other Committee of the College dealing with the matter.

Who is eligible to apply for funding?

There are five different ways in which you could be eligible for funding for therapy and counselling. You are eligible for funding if your circumstances fit any one of the following situations:

1. if the Discipline Committee found that you were sexually abused by a physician while you were the physician's patient;
2. if a physician admits or agrees in a statement to the Collelge that he/she sexually abused you while you were his/her patient in Ontario;
3. if a physician is convicted under the Criminal Code of Canada of sexually assaulting you while you were his/her patient in Ontario;
4. if there is a statement contained in the written reasons of a College Committee after a hearing that a physician sexually abused you in Ontario;
5. if you can provide the Patient Relations Committee with sufficient evidence to support its reasonable belief that you were sexually abused by a physician in Ontario.

Non-exhaustive examples of evidence that may support the Patient Relations Committee's belief that you have been sexually abused bya a physician include:

• evidence that a Notice of Hearing was issued by the College containing allegations that you were sexually abused by a physician who died before a Discipline Hearing was held;
• evidence that a mandatory report was made naming the physician as having sexually abused you; or,
• evidence that corroborates your allegations of sexual abuse.