Canadian Safety Reporter

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CSR | September 2015 | News the April arbitration. "There are real governance issues from a human resources management process here that need to be dealt with," he said. "These are all complex work- place issues and... I have lots of sympathies for employers be- cause it costs a lot of money to do all this and so we should be just making sure we get it right." Since 2007, the Halifax Em- ployers Association (HEA) had contracted for EAP services with Medavie Blue Cross, which itself subcontracted to Shepell- FGI Consultants. As part of a Monitored Referral Procedure, counsellors would assess each employee referred to them, pur- suant to a Policy on Employee Safety and Assistance (and its Substance Abuse Program and Structured Relapse Protection Program). But the Halifax Longshore- men's Association, Local 269, filed a grievance challenging the administration of the substance abuse program and, in particu- lar, the referral of employees to "Counsellor J." The union felt Counsellor J lacked the proper qualifications, experience, expertise and com- petence to fill the role of EAP co- ordinator. The HEA, however, said the counsellor was qualified — citing several of his qualifica- tions — and said the union did not cite any legislative, regula- tory or medical basis for its posi- tion Counsellor J must be a spe- cialist in addiction counselling. The union also maintained the counsellor improperly shared intimate and personal informa- tion about employees and said it went beyond employee consent. For example, the counsellor re- ported to the HEA about one employee's recent cancer diag- nosis and lung surgery. But the HEA said privacy case law can allow for the collection of sensitive personal informa- tion if a worker occupies a safe- ty-sensitive position. And the employer was entitled to know of circumstances that could trig- ger a relapse in an employee with a dependency. The union also felt the coun- sellor was unprofessional in conducting sessions in his living room and breached employee privacy by holding sessions at public locations such as Tim Hortons. Arbitrator steps in When it came to the question of the counselor's qualifications, arbitrator Michel Picher said there were no provisions in the province's acts that would pro- hibit the counsellor from pro- viding the services he did with the qualifications he possessed, while also stressing the counsel- lor's 25 years of experience. But Jeff Willbe said the Cana- dian Addiction Counsellors Cer- tification Federation (CACCF) has concerns with the compe- tencies of some counsellors. "Our real concern is that no- where in this country are there regulations to regulate the competencies of an addictions practitioner as there is for social workers, for physicians, nurses," said Willbe, interim executive director of the Ottawa-based federation. "Anybody can call themselves an addictions counsellor… There's a hodge podge out there and this needs to be formalized, regulations; let's define… what level of competency, what level of knowledge and skills are re- quired to practise and call your- self an addictions counsellor, practitioner or therapist." Since the industry is unregu- lated, a person could be sus- pended or have her certification taken way, but it doesn't stop her from practising, he said. "If (counsellors) haven't had training in working in addic- tions, they may not be able to deal with what can sometimes be some pretty complex health and human issues." There is a need for greater clarity in the role of and the qual- ifications of professional coun- sellors, said Pink. It's about mak- ing sure those who do have the power are properly trained, and there's some societal and regula- tory authority. "It has become and will be- come very shortly a very signifi- cant profession and... if you're doing counselling of any sort, small c or capital C, you should be regulated by some sort of statutory authority, so there's a supervisory body." All the therapists at Aspiria providing psychological coun- selling have a minimum of five to 10 years' experience in coun- selling, said Eric Rubel, Toronto- based national director, clini- cal services and organizational health, at the EAP provider. And when it comes to specialty thera- pists, it's about making sure they have the proper skill level, expe- rience and credentials. "There's different types of training and different types of programs that therapists can go through to get that special- ization. Some go through a very formal academic program, some go through more shorter- term addictions training," said Rubel. "You do want to have a spe- cialization in addictions when you treat addictions, for sure, but how do you define spe- cialization? Is specialization defined as someone who does a three-month course in addic- tions versus someone who does a three- or four-year degree in psychology with a focus on ad- dictions?" When it came to the decision to inform the employer about the cancer situation, this was a serious breach of confidentiality and privacy, said the arbitrator. "To tie the disclosure of Em- ployee M's diagnosis of cancer and surgery to concerns for the potential for relapse, standing on its own, is simply too facile to justify the disclosure and… vio- lates the counsellor's obligation of confidentiality towards the employee entrusted to him." It's a tricky area, since the company is paying for the EAP, said Willbe, but "unless there is a real health and safety issue, because the person's working on very sensitive job, confidentiality should rule and if it is not, I think the employee has a right, and the union, a right to complain.... I'm going to relapse if I can't trust the person I went to for help." The counsellors want to sup- port their clients but with the employer funding the program, they have to keep in mind its in- terests as well, said Rubel. "That's not to say that confi- dentiality or all that therapist- client confidentiality should be thrown out the window, that's absolutely not the case," he said. "Sometimes, it can be diffi- cult, it can be challenging, and what needs to happen is a good clinician and good clinical de- partment supporting that coun- sellor, like the EAP-type depart- ment, would be able to support that counsellor and help as a team to determine what can be or what should be revealed to the employer." But even if a counsellor has concerns that a particular event, such as cancer, could trigger somebody's relapse, the employ- er does not need to be told of the exact situation, he said. "What could go back to the employer, if anything, is that 'We believe that this individual can gain further support in the com- munity for... other issues' and leave it at that." If it get outs to the rest of the staff that information is being disclosed to the employer that really shouldn't be, that's going to take away from integrity of the whole EAP and a lot of con- fidence will be lost both on the part of the employee and of the employer, said Rubel. As for holding counselling sessions in a private home, that is acceptable and common in professional services, said Pich- er. But when it came to holding sessions at Tim Hortons, Home Depot, a bank or a grocery store, he expressed concerns. "Counsellor J did fail in the Workers > pg. 8 "To tie the disclosure of Employee M's diagnosis of cancer and surgery to concerns for the potential for relapse is... too facile to justify the disclosure." Counsellor < pg. 1 Lack of regulations in Canada 'real concern'

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