The College has been actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. We are here to support you during this difficult time. The College is now providing additional advice:
At this time, we are recommending that occupational therapists suspend all non-essential services until further notice.
We ask you to use your professional judgement to determine what is essential for your patients or clients. This advice will depend on your employment setting, sector and clinical population served. We encourage you to be in discussions with your organization about which services are considered essential or non-essential and create plans to serve those in need.
If you are uncertain, we suggest you take a step-by-step approach:
- Safety is of utmost importance. You must have personal protective equipment to provide care. If you do not, speak with your employer or contact Public Health.
- If you cannot obtain PPE, consider options for providing virtual care. If virtual care is not an option, if possible, collaborate with members of the health care team to determine the best approach for care delivery.
- If services are not essential, delay appointments and review methods of service delivery.
We believe that this recommendation is in the best interest of all and aligns with recommendations from all levels of government to practise social distancing.
Please continue to visit Ontario’s Ministry of Health dedicated website, Public Health Ontario and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Links are available through our dedicated COVID-19 webpage.
As circumstances change and new guidance is received from government, we will keep you updated. We are posting College guidance on questions our practice team is receiving.
Responses to these questions are now available on our COVID-19 page.
Occupational therapists are reminded to follow infection prevention best practices (See the College's
Standards for Infection Prevention and Control). Please contact our Practice Resource Service for any questions about infection prevention by phone at 416-241-1177/1-800-890-6570 x240, or by email at
[email protected].