CASC on Supervisors Working Group

CASC ON Supervisors’ Working Group

Report on Discussions with

Mark Pioro, Senior Analyst

College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario

Submitted by: Neil Elford

As mandated by the Working Group, Neil Elford, Michael Chow and Marvin Shank were to approach Mark Pioro, Senior Analyst with CRPO about exploratory discussions concerning a conjoint submission by CASC ON Teaching Centers for Review and Recognition as an Education Program.

After preliminary discussions among Neil Elford, Mark Pioro and Joyce Rowlands (Registrar, CRPO) agreement was reached for Mark Pioro and Neil Elford to have an informal phone conversation.

03 February 2014 Discussion Notes:

Introductions: Mark is a lawyer who works as a Senior Analyst in the Educational Framework portfolio for CRPO.
CRPO will be open to receive applications for review and recognition as an education center within the next 2 weeks.
Before there can be formal discussions between CASC and CRPO there the topic will need to go to the Executive Committee of CRPO for discussions and approval.
Background information was solicited by Mark about CASC education, i.e. streams of education, hours per Unit of education, type of curriculum, structure of programs, clinical hours, etc.
Neil stressed that CASC ON Educators are currently in discussions about a conjoint application and appreciate having an informal discussion with CRPO about possible feasibility of this approach.
Mark’s questions about consistency of curriculum, i.e. that all students are getting the same education were explored.
CRPO is training reviewers now until the middle of March.
Time from submission of application to response form CRPO is expected to be one month.
Application fee is $3,500.00.
Mark will discuss the information provided with Joyce Rowlands, who may wish to discuss it with the CRPO Executive Committee.

13 February 2014 Discussion Notes:

A subsequent meeting by phone was requested by Mark Pioro.
After discussions among Mark and Joyce Rowlands a number of questions emerged about which they wanted more information before having a discussion with the Executive Committee of CRPO about more formal talks between CRPO and CASC ON.
Concern was expressed by CRPO about the consistency education across all 17 CASC sites, i.e. would students be able to receive the same content, reading lists, syllabus.
Neil reported that this is currently under review by a CASC ON Working Group.
CRPO question about how a student would choose to stay at one site or go to different sites.
Neil reported that the clinical context (type of clients and therefore therapeutic approaches) and the approach to supervision by the educator would be some reasons why students might move from site to site.
More information was requested about the estimated number of students in SPE Programs at any given time: 17 centers x 3 - 6 students = 51 – 102 students would be the range (average 75), recognizing that some programs only operate through May – July.
Mark stressed that uniformity of curriculum (reading lists, syllabus, course content, etc.) so that students could move from site to site, depending on student learning needs / goals and get still get the same curriculum would increase the chance of receiving recognition as a single application. A “hodgepodge” of course offerings / educational programs would be very difficult for the reviewers to assess.
CRPO would not accept submission of a theoretical model – it needs to be functional / operational. Neil discussed with mark the Accreditation process and standards for CASC, and the familiarity of the Teaching Centers in Ontario with accreditation requirements.
Recognition for educational programs would be for 5 years duration. Neil acknowledged the email from CRPO (Sean Knight) about the opening of the Review and Recognition Process and thanked Mark for passing contact information on to Sean Knight.
Mark and Neil agreed that these conversations are mutually beneficial to CRPO and CASC ON and are open to contacting each other with future questions.