Professional integrity & accountability

BY JOLINE COMEAU, MSW, RSW, COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE CHAIR

The mandate of the College is to serve and protect public interest, preserve the integrity of the social work profession, and to maintain public confidence in the ability of the social work profession to regulate itself. The College achieves this mandate by regulating the practice of social work, in part, through its legislated power to address complaints involving allegations of professional misconduct, conduct unbecoming the profession, incompetency, and/or a breach of the Code of Ethics.

The process of receiving, investigating, and resolving complaints is the ongoing work of the Complaints Committee which is a subcommittee of the Board of Examiners. The Complaints Committee is obligated to investigate every complaint made, which vary in complexity. Some are simple to resolve, while others have more complex concerns such as fitness-to-practice issues, confidentiality breaches, and professional boundaries violations.

The powers and duties associated with processing complaints is not assumed lightly, and the resources required to carry out these responsibilities effectively are considerable.

It has been another busy year for the Complaints Committee. A total of 56 complaints were processed during 2019. The number of complaints received by the Complaints Committee remains high: between 2012 and 2016, an average of 16 complaints were received annually; in 2017 the College received 21 complaints; in 2018 we received 32; and in 2019, 28 new complaints were received.

We had some staff changes in 2019, as we said farewell to both Sherry Battiste and Alex Nelson, and welcomed Valerie Shapiro and Ogochukwu Okechukwu.

There were 28 complaints already in process when the year began, and 28 new complaints were officially received during 2019.

Based on steps taken in 2018, the Complaints Committee was able to finalize 41 complaints in 2019. These steps were:

1. Increased the number of qualified investigators

2. Created a stipend policy for the Complaints Committee

3. Ongoing training and support in right-touch regulation, which drew on the expertise of the College’s legal counsel

A look at 2019 Complaints

Complaint Type

Breached the Code of Ethics: 5

Incompetence: 3

Professional Misconduct: 30

Conduct Unbecoming the Profession: 2

Complaint Source

Client: 32

Employer: 4

Registrar: 0

3rd Party: 5

Action

Dismissed (no grounds): 25

Letter of Counsel: 11

Reprimand with Consent: 4

Ongoing: 1

2019 COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Joline Comeau (chair), Dennis Adams, SherryBattiste (staff), Jack Landreville, LisandraNaranjo (public appointed member), AlexNelson (staff), Valerie Shapiro (staff).