About Dr. Stevens
Dr. Stevens has been registered as a Psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 1993. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical-Counselling Psychology from York University in 1992. In addition, he holds Bachelor's degrees in English, Education, and Psychology as well as Master's degrees in Educational Psychology and Clinical-Counselling Psychology. He has been working in the field of counselling and psychotherapy for over 30 years. Current areas of practice include individual psychotherapy, marital counselling, group therapy, personality and diagnostic assessment, neuropsychological assessment, program evaluation, and teaching. One area of interest is working with clients who want to make use of their Christian faith in the recovery process.
Psychologists are registered or licensed by the province in which they practice. The Canadian Register of Health Service Psychologists (CRHSP) does not license Psychologists but does keep a list of individuals across Canada who practice health-related psychology and who have voluntarily submitted their credentials for verification and listing. Dr. Stevens can be found on this register.
In addition to running a private practice, Dr. Stevens worked for 34 years in the public hospital sector in Ontario. This included serving as corporate Professional Leader for Psychology at William Osler Health System, which has hospitals in Brampton and Etobicoke. In addition to leadership and planning, his duties at Osler included clinical work in outpatient Mental Health, conducting program evaluation, and providing oversight for evidence based practice in the Mental Health Program. A life-long learner and recognized educator, he has taught doctoral Psychology students from eight different university programs.
Privacy of personal information is an important principle of my practice. I am committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the services I provide. I also try to be open and transparent as to how I handle personal information. This document describes the privacy policy of my private practice.
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to an individual’s personal characteristics, health, activities, and/or views. Personal information is different from business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.
My organization, Dr. Robert F. Stevens, includes at the time of writing one primary Psychologist and one Clinical Associate, who is also a Registered Psychologist. From time to time I may use the services of Psychometrists or other Psychologists on a contractual basis and an administrative assistant. I use a limited number of consultants who assist with computer operations, accounting functions and legal matters who, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information I hold. I restrict their access to any personal information I hold as much as is reasonably possible. I also obtain their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.
Like all psychologists, I collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve my clients.
For my clients, the primary reason for collecting personal information is to provide psychological assessment and treatment. For example, I collect information about a client’s history, including their family history, physical condition and function, and social situation in order to help me assess what their psychological health needs are, to advise them of their options, and then to provide the psychological care they choose to have.
A second primary reason is to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing ongoing health services I can identify changes that occur over time.
A third reason for collecting information is to provide feedback to family physicians and other referral sources. This is done only if the client wishes me to provide feedback.
Personal information is generally obtained through client interviews and telephone discussions, completion of background information forms, psychological tests, and questionnaires. I may also collect personal information when I receive a referral of a possible client. I use this information to make a preliminary judgment about whether my services are likely to he relevant and to contact a potential client. At the earliest practical opportunity, I will review with the client my privacy policy and seek explicit consent for further collection and use of personal information for any other purposes. In rare instances, for example in an emergency situation, I may collect personal information without the client’s express consent.
Like most organizations, I also collect, use, and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to my primary purposes. The most common examples of my related and secondary purposes are as follows:
To invoice clients for goods or services or to collect unpaid accounts.
To invoice third party payers including WSIB, private insurance, and auto insurance. These third-party payers often have your consent or legislative authority to direct me to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.
I review client and other files for the purpose of ensuring that I provide high quality services, including assessing the performance of my staff.
Psychologists are regulated by the College of Psychologists of Ontario who may inspect my records and interview my staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, as a professional, I will report sexual misconduct of other practitioners, whether they belong to other organizations or my own.
Clients or other individuals I deal with may have questions about my goods or services after they have been received. I also provide ongoing services for many of my clients over a period of months or years for which my previous records are helpful. I retain my client information for a minimum of 10 years after the last contact to enable me to respond to those questions and provide these services (my regulatory College also requires me to retain my client records).
I understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, I have taken the following steps:
Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times.
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable Companies.
Electronic information is transmitted through a direct line or has identifiers removed or is encrypted. Storage & transmission
Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with my privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with me.
I need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that I can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for my own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, I do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.
My regulatory body requires that I keep client files for 10 years, or in the case of a child, for 10 years after their 18th birthday.
I destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding or burning. I destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, I ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.
With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information I hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. I can help you identify what records I might have about you. I will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). I reserve the right to charge a fee for such requests.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions I may have formed. I may ask you to provide documentation that my files are wrong. Where I agree that I made a mistake, I will make the correction and notify anyone to whom I sent this information. If I do not agree that I have made a mistake, I will still agree to include in my file a brief statement from you on the point and I will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.
Please do not hesitate to talk to me as I am the Privacy Officer for my private practice. I will attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
If you wish to make a formal complaint about my privacy practices, you may make it in writing to Dr. Stevens. I will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly, and see that you are provided with a formal written decision with reasons.
If you have a concern about the professionalism or competence of my services or the mental or physical capacity of any of my professional staff I would ask you to discuss those concerns with me. However, if I cannot satisfy your concerns, you are entitled to contact my regulatory body, the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
This policy is made under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. That is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.
For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector and acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy commissioner can be reached at: 112 Kent St., Ottawa, Ontario K1A. 1H3; phone 613-995-8210 or 800-282-1376; fax 613-947-6850; TTY 613-992-9190, www.privcom.gc.ca.
This document outlines office policies related to use of Social Media and other forms of electronic contact. Please read it to understand how Dr. Robert Stevens and Clinical Associates conduct themselves on the Internet as mental health professionals and expected responses to various interactions that may occur between client and therapist on the Internet.
The primary concern regarding this social media policy is your privacy and confidentiality. Viewing of client’s online content outside of the therapy hour can compromise the clear and distinct client-therapist boundaries and could have a negative influence on the therapeutic working relationship. If there is content from your online life that you wish to share with your therapist, please bring this to the therapy session, where it can be viewed and explored together, during the therapy hour. If there are any questions about anything within this document, please bring them to your therapist’s attention so they may be discussed.
Friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) will not be accepted. Adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your privacy and our respective privacy. It may also compromise the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship.
Please do not use messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn as a method of contact (e.g. Facebook messages, Facebook wall postings, Tweets). These sites are not secure, messages will not be read in a timely fashion, and this form of contact may also compromise your confidentiality. These exchanges may become a part of your treatment file as any form of contact between client and therapist is to be documented and archived in to a client’s records.
If you need to be contacted between sessions, the best way to do so is the preferred method of contact indicated by Dr. Stevens and his associates, which is either phone or email.
Clients will not be searched on Google or Facebook or other search engines, with the exception of rare circumstances, such as a crisis. If I have a reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with me via our usual means (e.g. coming to appointments, phone, or email) there might be an instance in which using a search engine (to find you, find someone close to you, etc.) becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are rare and unusual situations that will be documented and discussed together at the next appointment.
We prefer that email only be used to arrange or modify appointments. Please do not use email to communicate content related to therapy sessions, as email is not completely secure or confidential. Please be aware that all emails are retained in the logs of your and my Internet service providers. While it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s) of the Internet service provider. You should also know that any emails I receive from you and any responses that I send to you become a part of your treatment file.
A blog is published on this site and is updated periodically with new content. There are no expectations that clients follow this blog. You are welcome to read and share these blog articles on Social Media at your own discretion. Please be aware that sharing the blog content may compromise your privacy as you will be making a public link to my website and its content. If you have any questions or concerns regarding blog articles, clients are welcome to raise them during the next session so it may be discussed.
As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there may be times when this policy is updated. Please refer to this policy regularly for updates.