Limits of Confidentiality

When obtaining services from a psychologist, it is important that you understand the issue of confidentiality and the limits of confidentiality. Everything that you tell a psychologist is confidential and will be kept in the strictest confidence; the fact that you are even attending appointments is confidential. There are, however, some exceptions to this:

  1. By law, a psychologist must report suspected cases of child abuse/neglect to the Childrens’ Aid Society.
  2. By law, if you inform a psychologist that you have been sexually abused by a regulated health care professional, the psychologist is required to report the name of the professional to their regulatory body. The psychologist is not permitted to report your name without your consent.
  3. A court of law has the power to subpoena a psychologist, along with your record, and require the psychologist to testify. In addition, the court can issue a court order allowing for the search and seizure of your record.
  4. Although not required by law, it is our personal practice to break confidentiality and take the appropriate action if there is a, in our opinion, a significant risk that you may harm yourself or someone else. This may include, but is not limited to , informing significant others, potential victims and/or the police.
  5. Although not required by law, it is my personal practice to inform your family physician and the Ministry of Transportation of a concern over your capacity to drive.
  6. As part of the College of Psychologists of Ontario’s Quality Assurance Program, on occasion I may be randomly selected to participate in a Peer assisted Review. As part of this process your file may be potentially reviewed by another member of the College. In the event of such a review, we would discuss your options at that time.
  7. Information will be shared with your consent or with the consent of your duly appointed and authorized legal representative. That is to say, a psychologist will release with either verbal or written (preferable) consent from you or your representative, any authorized information to specific named parties. Such releases of information usually specify exactly what is to be released, the purpose of the release and the period of time for which the release is valid. Such a release does not imply any ongoing right to release information and may be revoked at any time by you or your appointed representative.
It is also our personal practice, when we see children or adolescents, to attempt to keep the parent(s) informed of the child’s progress and specific information, which in our judgement, is appropriate or necessary to be shared with the parent(s). Generally speaking, however, children are provided with the same or similar rights to confidentiality, as adults, and in the case of older adolescents with exactly the same rights as adults.

Depending on your specific situation there may be other limits of confidentiality that will be discussed with you if necessary.