Overview

While ACOT is concerned about the well being of all individuals receiving health care in Alberta, ACOT can only address concerns that are within its legislated authority as set out in the Health Professions Act.

ACOT cannot:

• Address anonymous complaints
• Address complaints that do not identify a specific occupational therapist by name
• Make an occupational therapist provide financial compensation to a complainant
• Make an occupational therapist apologize
• Investigate systemic issues, such as challenges finding an occupational therapist
• Make an occupational therapist change a professional opinion or report
• Get involved in employer-employee disputes or contractual disputes
• Address complaints about a member of another regulatory college or an unregulated health care provider
  • Concerns about a member of another profession can be brought to the attention of that professional’s own College.  A listing of health Colleges in Alberta can be found on the website of the Alberta Federation of Regulated Health Professions
  • Under the Health Professions Act, unregulated practitioners cannot use the title occupational therapist or use the abbreviation O.T.  Anyone with concerns about an unregulated practitioner using the title ‘occupational therapist’ is encouraged to contact ACOT’s Registrar at email. ACOT will contact those who use title without authorization and take steps to have them stop this practice. You can check whether an individual is registered through our online registry

Complaints about occupational therapists must be submitted in writing. Written statements, called a complaint letter, must include the following information:

• Your contact information
• The name of the occupational therapist
• As much detail as possible about your experience with the occupational therapist that led you to make a complaint. Describe what happened, when and where it happened, who was involved and note any witnesses. Please describe what steps have you taken to resolve the issue with the occupational therapist (if any) and the occupational therapist’s response. Include any other information you feel is relevant or will help ACOT to better understand the situation or your concern
• Include a copy of any supporting documentation relevant to the complaint
• Your signature (scanned and electronic signatures are acceptable)

Your complaint letter can be sent to the Complaints Director by:

• mail to the attention of the Complaints Director, Alberta College of Occupational Therapists 312-8925 51 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T6E 5J3
• email
• fax to 780-434-0658

Complaint letters and any supporting documentation you provide will be shared with the occupational therapist. This is an important part of transparency and fairness to the occupational therapist, so they can respond to the complaint. Your personal contact information will not be shared.

If you have questions about filing a complaint or would like to speak to someone to help you determine the best way to address your experience, please contact the Complaints Director on their confidential line at 780-436-8381 ext. 403 or email. The Complaints Director can meet with you in person, virtually, or by phone.

Information about the complaints process can be made available in any language. Language interpretation services are also available. Please contact the Complaints Director to arrange.

When a complaint is received, the Complaints Director will review the complaint letter to determine next steps.

Under section 55(2) of the Health Professions Act, the Complaints Director has a number of options in determining how a complaint will be processed. These options include:

• Attempting to resolve the matter with the consent of both parties
• Conducting an investigation into the concerns raised
• Appointing an investigator
• Asking an expert to assess and provide a written report on the subject matter of the complaint
• Dismissing the complaint

Within 30 days of receiving a complaint, the Complaints Director will give notice to the complainant of the action taken with respect to the complaint. Typically, the Complaints Director’s first step will be to provide a copy of the complaint letter, along with any supporting documentation submitted, to the occupational therapist, so that the occupational therapist has a fair opportunity to respond to the complaint. The complainant’s personal contact information is not shared with the occupational therapist.

If the Complaints Director decides that an investigation is necessary, the Complaints Director or appointed investigator may interview and request information from the complainant, the investigated occupational therapist and any other relevant parties. If an external investigator is appointed, the complainant and occupational therapist will be notified in writing and provided with the name of the investigator. Both parties will be updated on the status of the investigation every 60 days. An investigation can take four months or longer, depending on the complexity and severity of the complaint issue(s) involved.

The possible outcomes of a complaint are resolution, referral to a hearing or dismissal.

The Complaints Director may try to resolve a complaint during the complaints process if both parties consent. A resolution may be attempted at any point in the complaints process, up to the point where a complaint is referred to a hearing or dismissed.

Resolution is typically confirmed by a written agreement between the Complaints Director and the occupational therapist. Resolutions focus on accountability and future practice enhancement for the occupational therapist. They often require that the occupational therapist complete a reflection paper or related education and training. By enhancing future practice, the likelihood of a similar occurrence happening is minimized.

Note that resolution may not be appropriate for some complaints.

If, at the conclusion of an investigation, the Complaints Director determines that there is sufficient evidence of unprofessional conduct, as defined in the Health Professions Act, the matter may be referred to the Hearings Director to schedule a hearing. The Hearings Director will provide the complainant and the occupational therapist with notice of the date, time and location of the hearing.

ACOT Hearings are typically conducted virtually, unless one of the parties requests an in-person hearing. Hearings are open to the public, subject to some exceptions. Accommodations, such as a closed hearing, may be made if the matter is highly sensitive, includes children and/or has the potential to cause harm to a participant.  Please click here for more information regarding hearings involving sexual abuse or sexual misconduct.

At the hearing, the Hearing Tribunal determines whether unprofessional conduct occurred and, if so, determines the appropriate penalty. Hearing Tribunals must be made up of at least fifty percent public members (selected from a list of public members appointed by the government), with the remaining panel members being occupational therapists (selected from a list of occupational therapists appointed by ACOT’s Council). For each hearing, the Hearings Director typically appoints two public members and two occupational therapists to sit as a Hearing Tribunal.

There are generally two types of hearings:

Consent Hearings: A consent hearing is when the occupational therapist admits to unprofessional conduct and sometimes proposes what they believe is an appropriate penalty with the Complaints Director.

A consent hearing is similar to a guilty plea. Often admissions of unprofessional conduct are agreed upon in advance by the Complaints Director and the occupational therapist and submitted together to the Hearing Tribunal for their consideration.

In a consent hearing witnesses are usually not required.

Contested Hearings: A contested hearing is when the occupational therapist does not admit the allegations against them, and the Hearing Tribunal must hear evidence to determine whether unprofessional conduct occurred and, if applicable, the appropriate penalty.

A contested hearing is similar to a trial. Witness evidence, documentary evidence and physical evidence may be presented to the Hearing Tribunal for careful consideration and to assist them when making their decision.

Any witnesses asked to testify in a hearing will receive a notice to attend from the Hearings Director. A notice to attend is a formal document requiring someone to appear for a hearing. A notice to attend includes the date and time of the hearing and the name of the occupational therapist.

During the hearing, witnesses are asked questions by the Complaints Director, or the Complaint Director’s lawyer and the occupational therapist, or the occupational therapist’s representative or lawyer. Witnesses may also be asked questions by members of the Hearing Tribunal.

If the Hearing Tribunal finds that there has been unprofessional conduct, it can do one or more of the following:

• Caution or reprimand the occupational therapist
• Impose conditions on the occupational therapist’s practice permit
• Require the occupational therapist to satisfy the Hearing Tribunal that they are not incapacitated
• Require counselling or a treatment program
• Require a course of study
• Suspend or cancel the occupational therapist’s practice permit
• Impose fines
• Make any other appropriate order

The complainant and the occupational therapist will receive a copy of the decision.

Decisions and orders based on a finding of unprofessional conduct are typically posted on ACOT’s website for a period of 10 years, although information may be summarized, removed, or redacted to protect the personal and health information of clients or third parties. The Health Professions Act requires that any decisions or orders based on a finding of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct be posted on ACOT’s website indefinitely, subject to limited exceptions set out in the Health Professions Act.

Please find our current decisions here.

Diagram of the Professional Conduct Hearing

Diagram of the Professional Conduct Appeal

A complaint may be dismissed before or after an investigation. The Complaints Director may dismiss a complaint if the evidence does not support the complaint, if there was insufficient evidence to proceed, or if the complaint was trivial or vexatious in nature.

If a complaint is dismissed without a hearing, the complainant and the occupational therapist will receive a written decision from the Complaints Director with reasons for the dismissal. The complainant may request a review of the dismissal before a Complaint Review Committee.

The role and task of the Complaint Review Committee is to review the dismissal and consider whether the decision was reasonable. After their review, the Complaint Review Committee may:

• uphold the dismissal
• refer the complaint to a hearing; or
• refer the complaint to an investigation or further investigation before deciding whether to uphold the dismissal or refer the complaint to a hearing

A request to review the dismissal must be submitted by the complainant within thirty days of receiving notice of the dismissal. Late requests will not be considered.

To request a review of a dismissal, please submit your request to the Hearings Director, following the instructions below:

• Submit your request for a review in writing. You may submit a handwritten or typed request, but please ensure it is legible
• Include reasons for your request. Explain why you believe the Complaints Director’s decision to dismiss the complaint was unreasonable, or why you believe the complaint process was unfair
• Reviews are usually based on the information that was before the Complaints Director when they made their decision. If you are asking the Complaint Review Committee to consider information or evidence that the Complaints Director did not have when they dismissed the complaint, explain:
  • why the Complaints Director did not have this information
  • why this information is relevant
  • why this information is reliable, and
  • how this information could have impacted the Complaints Director’s decision to dismiss the complaint
• Email, fax or mail the completed request to ACOT at:

Attention: Hearings Director
Alberta College of Occupational Therapists
312, 8925 51 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T6E 5J3

Email 

Please contact the Hearings Director to answer any questions about the process. If you wish to seek legal advice before submitting a request for review, we encourage you to do so.

Information collected as part of the complaints process will be used by ACOT for business and regulatory purposes and may be disclosed only in accordance with the Health Professions Act and the Personal Information Protection Act.

This includes sharing personal information with ACOT staff and external contractors, such as ACOT legal counsel, investigators or subject matter experts, who require the information in order to process the complaint. All external consultants or contractors who access information in the course of processing the complaint enter into confidentiality agreements to protect personal information.

Additionally, information submitted by the complainant and other parties during an investigation may be provided to the occupational therapist who is the subject of the complaint (with personal contact information redacted). If the occupational therapist retains legal counsel to assist them in responding to the complaint, the occupational therapist may share the complaint letter, clinical file and any other personal information about the complainant with their legal counsel or other representatives to assist them in the complaint process.

Any witnesses approached in investigating a complaint will also be made aware of the fact that a complaint has been submitted. The investigator’s lines of questioning and requests for documents may allow witnesses to understand that a complaint exists, and some aspects of what concerns may have been raised.

If a complaint is referred to a hearing, the hearing is typically open to the public unless it is determined that the hearing be held in private. The Health Professions Act outlines when a hearing may be heard in private. However, if a matter is referred to a hearing, information gathered during the complaints process may become public.