1. Community Guidelines
RISE CHC is a part of Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH). The CNH Community Guidelines, below, are a to guide respectful interactions while participating in CNH programs and services, and are applicable to all staff and patrons.

CNH is all of us! Participants, families and staff.

A place for care, connection, belonging and growth. We work together to make CNH a place where community members can feel safe, welcomed, appreciated and whole.

We all have the right to be treated with respect, compassion and dignity. Communicate with respect and expect respect in return
We are in this together! We can offer thanks when things go well and give feedback about how to improve*. When we solve problems together, we help make things better.

*If you would like to make a formal complaint, the form complaint policy can be found on the CNH website here: Non-Staff Formal Complaint Form or ask any CNH front desk staff for a the formal complaint form.

2. Attachment to a Primary Care Provider (PCP)
A primary care provider (PCP) refers to a Family Doctor or a Nurse Practitioner (NP). Attachment is an agreement between a PCP and yourself as a client, agreeing that the PCP will be your primary health care provider.

Attachment does not always occur after the first appointment.
Attachment can take several appointments to ensure that it is the right fit for both the client and the provider.

If you want to switch your PCP, you can make that request with the RISE CHC Manager.

CNH employees and their immediate/extended family members cannot be attached to a RISE PCP.

Once attached to a RISE CHC we request that you:
Seek primary health care from RISE CHC whenever possible.
Identify your RISE CHC PCP as your primary care provider when you visit any other health care facility (e.g. Emergency Department, Urgent Primary Care Centre, Walk-In Clinic etc.).
Not have another family doctor/ nurse practitioner as a PCP. Repeatedly seeking primary care outside of RISE CHC may result in dismissal from RISE CHC

3. Consent to access and collect information
By virtue of seeking care from RISE CHC Primary Care Clinic, consent is implied for your personal information to be used by our clinic to provide care, and to be shared with other providers involved in care.

We will only collect the information that is required to provide care, administrate the care that is provided, and communicate with clients.

RISE CHC will only disclose personal information where authorized by PIPA or required by law.
Consent can be withdrawn at any time. If you wish to withdraw consent, we will no longer be able to safely provide clinical care.

4. Appointment bookings, cancellations, arriving late and no-shows
RISE CHC Primary Care Clinic sees clients by appointment only. Please call or use the online scheduling system to book and appointment. Appointments can range from 15 min to 1 hour, depending on the type of visit. RISE CHC offers a limited number of same day appointments. When you call to request an appointment, a nurse will triage your concern over the phone and book a same day appointment if needed and/or if possible considering staff availability.

If you need to cancel an appointment, please do so with at least one business day notice (24 hours) in advance by cancelling on the Cortico self-scheduling system or by calling RISE CHC during regular business hours.

If you do not attend your appointment without prior notification, this is considered a No-Show.

If you are late for an appointment, and RISE CHC cannot fit you into the schedule on the same day, it is considered a No-Show.
If you No-Show for three appointments consecutively, a RISE CHC staff will reach out to confirm your attachment to the clinic. This includes ALL appointments with any RISE Staff member

5. Communication via text and email
RISE offers appointments by phone, in person or on virtual platforms. RISE CHC may use email and text to send appointment confirmations, to share resources or information that was discussed during your appointment, and/or notices about changes to RISE CHC services and program offerings. To ensure best communication, please notify RISE CHC if your phone number, address or email addresses changes.
Emails and texts are NOT an appropriate substitute for in-person, phone or virtual appointments. To ensure safety and privacy, RISE CHC staff will not discuss personal medical information (e.g., test results or specialist reports), have clinical discussions, or provide counselling or crisis-related support through email or text messages. Please book an appointment to discuss such issues.

6. Photos, audio and video recording
To protect client and staff privacy, we do not allow unauthorized video or audio recordings and photos at RISE CHC or during any appointment. However, there can be video or recordings with staff and/or client consent. For example: taking a photo or video of an injury to share with another health care provider to help decide on appropriate treatment, or where counselling students sessions are recorded as the student is being evaluated by a supervisor who is not directly partaking the session. Taking and sharing photos and/or videos is only allowed with the mutual consent of both the RISE CHC staff and the client, and should not include other people in the photo or video that have not provided consent.

7. No Weapons
Weapons are not permitted at RISE CHC or any CNH facility.

8. Extended Health Benefits
To promote health equity, RISE CHC Counselling, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy services are reserved for RISE CHC primary care clients who do NOT have extended health benefits or active claims through ICBC, WorkSafe BC and/ or other third-party insurance. Counselling, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, MyoActivation, Dietitian, and Social Work require an internal referral from a RISE team member. Please tell RISE CHC staff if you have extended health benefits, active ICBC Claims or active WorkSafe BC Claims or claims against third-party insurance.

9. Childhood Immunizations
RISE CHC does not provide childhood immunizations for children under six years of age. Guardians will be directed to contact public health for these immunizations, with the exception of seasonal flu shots.

10. Opioids, Sedatives and Other Controlled Substances
RISE PCPs follow clinical guidelines and best practices in managing and treating clients living with chronic pain, including, cancer, palliative conditions, Central sensitization syndromes, Osteoarthritis, Addiction, Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and other
RISE PCPs avoid use of opioids (aka narcotics) to treat chronic pain that is NOT due to cancer and palliative conditions. These medications include Morphine, Codeine, Hydromorphone/Dilaudid, Oxycodone/Percocet, and others. While these medications can help in the treatment of acute pain (for example, post-operative pain, or pain from a serious acute injury) or pain arising from cancer, most times they actually do more harm than good when treating chronic pain from other sources.
RISE clients who are currently on long term opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and/or are living with OUD will have their opioid medications and/or their Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT), reviewed on a regular basis by their PCP.

Any client who is on long term opioid medications and/or OAT need to have an Opioid Treatment Agreement reviewed and signed with their PCP. The Opioid Treatment Agreement outlines the risks and possible benefits of using opioid medications, and provides a plan for clients about when opioids need to be discontinued or stopped. An example of an Opioid Agreement can be found below. https://www.cpsbc.ca/files/pdf/PRP-Sample-Opioid-Treatment-Agreement.pdf

11. Student Learners
RISE CHC is a teaching environment for various health care professional students. We will ask for your consent prior to seeing students. You always have the choice of declining to see a student, and this will not affect your care with RISE CHC in any way. If you have an appointment with a student, your appointment will always be reviewed by the student’s supervisor/instructor. You can also ask to see RISE staff after seeing the student.

12. Primary Care Network Research Study
RISE CHC is part of BC Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network that collects de-identified data about our client’s health. The purpose of the study is to support better research and improve the diagnosis, treatment and care of Canadians with conditions. If you wish to opt out of the study, please complete the following form and return to RISE CHC. Please note that your medical care will not be affected.

13. Transferring Care/Ending Care with RISE CHC
It is within your rights, at any time, to end your provider-client relationship and transfer care to another provider or clinic. RISE CHC’s mandate is to serve the Renfrew-Collingwood community. If you permanently move outside of Metro-Vancouver, please inform RISE CHC and we will assist you in connecting to a new PCP.

A positive therapeutic relationship relies on mutual trust and respect between a client and RISE CHC. Either the client or RISE CHC may choose to terminate this provider-client relationship if a therapeutic relationship is no longer possible. After the provider-client relationship is terminated, you have the right to seek care from RISE CHC for a grace period of up to 6 weeks. This grace period will not apply if the reason for terminating the relationship involves verbal/ physical/ sexual aggression towards any staff member.