Policies and Principles

Counseling, Addictions and Crisis Response Services

Policies and Principles
Policies and Principles

All information I obtain about you, all information you disclose to me and any service I provide to you and/or on your behalf form a part of your personal health information and will not be disclosed to a third party except in the following situations:

  • You or your substitute decision-maker give written consent to disclose information. Note:  In some cases, before your information is released after receipt of your signed consent, I may invite you to review your directive to allow you another opportunity to fully consider implications of the release, including potential risks.
  • To comply with Government Statutes and Legislation as follows:
    • When (in my best judgment), you or someone else is at risk of death or serious bodily harm
    • In situations when it is not possible to obtain consent to allow for the provision of necessary time-sensitive medical services
    • Pursuant to the receipt of a summons, subpoena or order from the Court
    • Suspected child abuse or neglect
    • Elder abuse or neglect if the elder resides in treatment facility, long-term care or retirement home
  • Limited information disclosure for billing purposes

KTLO would really like you to keep your appointment and invites you to discuss your difficulties in showing up.  In many cases, Clients could be helped to resolve those difficulties without canceling their appointment.

KTLO does recognize that unforeseen situations might occur after an appointment has been set.  If, for any reason, you are unable to keep your appointment, please cancel your Appointment as soon as possible so that the scheduled time could be assigned to another person. A message left on the Office Phone or an email would also be acceptable.

  • Clients who fail to cancel at least 24 hours before their appointment time, will be charged the full amount for the visit.
  • Clients with exceptional extenuating circumstances who fail to give at least 24 hours’ cancellation notice can have the full fee for the missed session waived but this is ultimately at the discretion of KTLO.
  • A Client who does not give 24 hours’ cancellation notice and reschedules their cancelled appointment within a two-week period thereafter and shows up for that appointment will only be charged 10% of the fee for the missed appointment, in addition to the fee for the current appointment.
  • Clients who repeatedly cancel or reschedule might be invited to utilize the on-call facility.
  • In accordance with Legislation and best practises, a record of contact with and about you will be generated. This record will be safeguarded to prevent any unauthorized access.  Your record will be kept for a minimum of 7 years after the last contact with this office.
  • Generally, you are entitled to have access to your mental health record. However, in some cases, such a request may be denied, eg in cases when such a release is reasonably likely to cause harm to you or to someone else or when the legal representative of a minor Client is in dispute at the time of the request.   Also, depending on the specific request, there may be an associated cost.  Please contact me if you require access to your record.