The Ethics Service supports good practice and decision-making around the ethical dimensions of the care or service at CAMH. Services provided on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.
Intended For
Everyone who works for, receives services from or interacts with CAMH.
Additional Referral Details
Call and ask about what support is available. No referral is needed.
You can contact the CAMH Client/Patient Relations Service here.
With ethical decision-making, sometimes we need the help of some tools. At CAMH, these include our CAMH values, our Bill of Client Rights, and other resources. These include the CLEOS dimensions, practice standards, the law and other important guideposts.
When needed, the CAMH Ethicist provides specialized help with clinical and organizational ethics questions and concerns—thinking through what to do, why it should be done and how to do it.
This can include help with:
care decisions and planning (especially making decisions for others—"substitute decision making")
policy and procedure development, review and explanation
resource allocation
understanding the "moral distress" that can arise for everyone involved in this area of health care.
Support can take the form of:
one or many "consultations" or support sessions
ethics education and learning sessions
reviewing of the ethical aspects of quality improvement, innovation and evaluation in our work
offering help with making communication happen
working like a mediator if needed to help with everyone understanding each other.
The Ethics Service will discuss with you how to go about supporting your situation. This may involve a simple conversation, joining a care planning meeting or working group, or convening a strategy group to help think through the decision or issue at hand.
CAMH is a partner of University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics and active within the broader health care ethics community.