The Provincial Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee (HSJCC) has developed a new Info Guide titled “Strategies for Community Service Providers for Engaging in Communication with Correctional Facilities in Ontario.”
The purpose of this Info Guide is to assist community service providers in developing strategies for enhancing communication with their local correctional facility. The impetus for developing this Info Guide was the recommendations from the Coroner’s Jury Inquest into the death of Glen Bocskei (2011); an individual who was receiving community mental health services, and died while in correctional custody. The Inquest recommendations highlighted the need to improve communication protocols between community mental health and addictions agencies and correctional centres.
This Info Guide was developed by a working group of the Provincial HSJCC. The document was compiled through a call for information which was distributed through the HSJCC networks to community mental health and addictions and community correctional service providers across the province, as well as the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
The document contains helpful suggestions for enhancing communication and provides discussion on issues of confidentiality under the Personal Health Information and Protection Act (PHIPA). A section focused on communicating with youth justice facilities is also included. The document concludes with sample communication protocols and sample terms of reference from organizations from across Ontario that have developed innovative methods for communicating and sharing information with correctional facilities and police services while still continuing to abide by the requirements of PHIPA legislation.
To access the Info Guide, visit: www.hsjcc.on.ca.
To access the Bocskei Inquest Recommendations (2011), visitwww.hsjcc.on.ca.