2.3 Informed Consent
Effective September 2015; Revised June 2022
Standard
A regulated member of ACSLPA ensures that they obtain informed consent prior to the provision of services.
Indicators
To demonstrate this standard, the regulated member will:
a) Inform clients of the risks, benefits and alternative options of any proposed service plans initially and whenever there are changes to the services provided.
b) Assess clients’ understanding of proposed services and adapt communication accordingly.
c) Obtain informed consent from client or from a legally authorized If consent is verbal, then a notation must be made to that effect in the client file.
d) Respect clients’ rights to choose service options, refuse interventions and withdraw consent at any time.
Expected Outcomes
Clients can expect that the regulated member will inform them of the risks and benefits to service options provided and respect their autonomy to exercise their right to consent, refuse and/or withdraw from services.
Glossary
Client refers to “a recipient of speech-language pathology or audiology services, and may be an individual, family, group, community or population. An individual client may also be referred to as a patient.”
Informed consent refers to when “a client gives consent to receive a proposed service following a process of decision-making leading to an informed choice. Valid consent may be either verbal or written unless otherwise required by institutional or provincial/territorial regulation. The client is provided with sufficient information, including the benefits and risks, and the possible alternatives to the proposed service, and the client understands this information. The client can withdraw informed consent at any time.”
Intervention/intervention strategy refers to “an activity or set of activities aimed at modifying a process, course of action or sequence of events in order to change one or several of their characteristics, such as performance or expected outcome.” In speech-language pathology and audiology, intervention is a term used to describe the various services provided to clients, including but not limited to individual and group treatment, counselling, home programming, caregiver training, devices, discharge planning, etc.”
Regulated member refers to “an individual who is registered with ACSLPA in any of the regulated categories of membership prescribed by ACSLPA Bylaws, the Health Professions Act and our Regulations.”