Accountability and Professional Responsibility and Restricted Activities Standards Adopted by Council
Our colleagues in the Government of Alberta flagged two new standards that need to be adopted by ACOT Council immediately. From the set of thirteen new standards submitted to the government in March, the following two have been approved to bring to ACOT Council for adoption. On June 15, 2023 ACOT Council approved the motion to adopt the following:
- Accountability and Professional Responsibility – in order to adhere to our legislated requirement (HPA s. 133.2(1)) to have expectations for registrants to not engage in behaviour that constitutes the procurement or performance of female genital mutilation – see clauses 8 and 9 in the new standard.
- Restricted Activities – to outline the authority and expectations for the supervision of restricted activities performed by students and non-regulated persons. The authority and expectations for supervision of restricted activities used to be housed in sections 20 and 21 of the Occupational Therapists Profession Regulation but were repealed. They are now included in clauses 3-5 of the new standard.
Please note, the remaining eleven standards are not yet in effect. Our colleagues in government indicate that the external review process will occur over the summer. The external review process, led by the Ministry of Health, offers other colleges and employers of occupational therapists in Alberta the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft standards and code of ethics. They indicate we should receive that feedback in early Fall. We are still on track to adopt the full set of new standards by the end of 2023 and in time for 2024-2025 registration renewal.
The two new standards can be accessed here – the standards which are not in effect at this time are greyed out. The current iterations of the Standards of Practice and the Code of Ethics remain in effect until the full set of standards and the draft Code of Ethics are approved and adopted by ACOT Council.
If you have any questions about the new standards, please contact Angela Meneley.