OPA Psychotherapy Initiative 

Many of our members have expressed concern about the provincial government's proposed limits on physician-delivered psychotherapy through OHIP and wish to help.  There have also been requests about accessing more information for the evidence supporting the value of long-term/intensive psychotherapy.  Below are pertinent resources.

Advocacy

Physicians 

If you feel comfortable connecting with politicians, you can contact your local conservative Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and/or the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Contact information for MPPs can be found at: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current. Minister Christine Elliott can be reached at: christine.elliott@pc.ola.org.  Here is a template for e-mailing MPPs/other politicians.  

Patients

Patients who have heard about the proposal may ask you questions.  Here is a summary of information that patients may find useful.  What and how to discuss this matter with patients depends on your clinical judgement with each individual patient.  A Web site where interested patients can sign up to receive further updates and ideas is: https://mailchi.mp/saveohippsychotherapy.com/2019.  Those interested in e-mailing MPPs/other politicians can consider this template.

Education

Canadian Resources

• Dr. Villela's blog for the Ontario Medical Association (July 2020)

• Dr. Villela's article for the Royal College Newsroom (April 2020)

• Community letters to the editor of The Globe and Mail (January 2020)  

• Psychotherapy Saves videos (November 2019 onwards)

• Dr. Wei-Yi Song's opinion article in the Toronto Star (July 2019)

• Dr. Javeed Sukhera's interview in The London Free Press (April 2019)

• Dr. Norman Doidge's opinion article in The Globe and Mail (April 2019)

• Saving OHIP Psychotherapy Web site (2019 onwards)

• Ontario Medical Association Committee to Preserve Publicly-Funded, Physician-Delivered Psychotherapy:
  a) synopsis (2019)
  b) brief literature summary (2019)

American Resources

• Drs. Villela and Plakun's article in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice (November 2019)

• Dr. Villela's article in Psychiatric News (April 2019)

• Coalition for Psychotherapy Parity's Clinical Necessity Guidelines for Psychotherapy (May 2018)

• Coalition for Psychotherapy Parity Web site (2018 onwards)

Dr. Renata M. Villela, MD, FRCPC
Psychotherapy Initiative Lead
Ontario Psychiatric Association