An Annotated Chronology concerning the Designation of Counselling Therapists under BC’s Health Professions Act
Prepared by: George K. Bryce
BCACC Legal Counsel

Current to: February 1, 2012

INTRODUCTION
The designation of counselling therapists as a health profession and the concurrent creation of a College of Counselling Therapists under the Health Professions Act has been an objective of the BCACC since the early 1990s. This annotated chronology and commentary tracks the major steps that have been taken to date to achieve that objective, with particular emphasis on the BCACC’s involvement and leadership in the Task Group for Counsellor Regulation.

This webpage contains a link to the latest version of the Designation Chronology as well as information sources and other documents referred to within the Chronology, which are set out below under Sources/Documents. (Many of these are PDF files that require Acrobat Reader software.)

The Chronology will be updated as required, in particular after there has been a major development in the work toward designating counselling therapists under the HPA.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS (since January 2010)

In March 2010, the Ministryreleased a revised draft of its proposed restricted activities that would be controlled under new Part 4.1 of the HPA (currently unproclaimed).  That draft did not propose a new restricted activity of psychotherapy.

In 2011, the Ministry also issued a policy statement on the use of occupational titles by regulated and non-regulated health professionals in BC.

In 2011, Ontario’s Transitional Council of the College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists adopted the essential elements of the Task Group’s 2007 competency profile as the foundation of Ontario’s own profile.  In turn, the Ontario profile will be used to frame Ontario’s developing registration criteria, etc.

For more details on these latest developments, please refer to the Designation Chronology.

SOURCES/DOCUMENTS

BC Ministry of Health, Professional Regulation website

(1997) HPC’s Recommendations on the Designation of Counselling

(1998) Task Group’s Joint Response to the Discussion Paper on the Regulation of Counsellors

(2001) HPC’s Safe Choices

(2001) Task Group’s Commentary on the Draft Designation Regulation

(2005) National Symposium Summary Report on the Regulation of Counsellors across Canada

(2007) Task Group’s Competency Profile for Counselling Therapists

(2008) AIT Commentary

(2009) Task Group’s Options Paper

(2011) Task Group’s Submission on Risks of Harm

Other sources or documents described in the Chronology, but not listed above may be available upon request.

For information about the ongoing work of the Ontario Transitional Council, visit CPRMHT

The Nova Scotia College of Counselling Therapists has its own website, which contains more details about its mandate and activities. Visit NSACT.

COMMENTS? QUESTIONS?

Comments, questions or concerns about this Chronology may be sent directly to the author, care of BCACC Head Office in Victoria.  Use the Contact link at the top of the page.