Restricted activities refer to procedures or services that pose significant risk and require a high level of professional competence to be performed safely. Restricted activities may only be performed by persons authorized by their regulatory College to do so.

What’s Changing?

The list of healthcare activities that are “restricted” has until now been found in the Government Organization Act (GOA). Bill 46 amendments to the Health Professions Act (HPA) are moving restricted healthcare activities from the GOA into the HPA. The list of restricted activities is NOT changing- just its location.

Likewise, the specific restricted activities that SLPs and audiologists are authorized to perform have, until now, been listed starting in section 14 on page 6 of the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Profession Regulation (SLPAPR). This list of restricted activities will move to a new umbrella piece of legislation that will outline the restricted activities that each healthcare profession can perform (anticipated date for the new legislation is fall 2022/winter 2023).  The restricted activities that SLPs and audiologists can perform is NOT changing-just its location.

How members practice in relation to restricted activities has until now also been governed under the SLPAPR. Bill 46 is changing this so the “how” will be regulated by the College’s Standards of Practice instead of within our regulation. The primary rationale for this change is so that any revisions to the Standard required in the future should be easier to make; Standards of Practice do not require the same levels of approval that legislation does; namely, approval by the provincial Cabinet.

Regarding content of the proposed Standard of Practice, you will note the following changes compared to the existing information in section 14 of the SLPAPR: 

  • The existing regulations include a section on authorizing others to perform restricted activities. We have intentionally removed language related to SLPs and audiologists “authorizing others” to perform restricted activities. SLPs and audiologists must always supervise students, support personnel, or other SLPs or audiologists with conditional registration when they are involved in procedures that include restricted activities.
  • The revised Standard references ACSLPA Standard 4.4 Clinical Supervision which outlines in detail regulated members’ responsibilities in relation to the supervision of others.
  • The revised Standard also references ACSLPA’s Restricted Activity Competency Profiles, which provide examples of the various procedures where restricted activities are involved. It is also evident from these competency profiles which elements of a procedure may be more suitable to assign to a support person than others.

We are aware that some of our sister colleges across the country manage restricted activities in different ways, including the completion of advanced certification to participate in procedures that involve restricted activities. The short turn around time on changes to the HPA prevent us from having an in-depth discussion on this topic at the current time. We welcome your thoughts on whether this is a topic worthy of consideration in the future. Make sure to include your thoughts on this as part of the survey below.

How can you provide feedback?

Please read the revised draft Standard of Practice: Restricted Activities prior to providing feedback. Links to the SLPAPR and to the Restricted Activity Competency Profiles are embedded in the draft Standard for easy access.

Deadline for receipt of written feedback is Sunday, May 29.

Click here to provide feedback via the online survey.