What the #$%@$% is OPA doing?
What are we doing? This is a question that OPA gets often. While the answer can be found in our various communications, we do know that it takes time to stay up-to-date on Association activities. We are working on making it easier and faster for you to find the information you need when you need it.
We are investing in improving our communications so that they are geared to you – helping you get the information that is most relevant to you quickly. This will include highlighting when a news item affects those in private practice, home care, primary care, or the hospital sector and more!
If you look at the pictogram of our strategic plan displayed below, it highlights all that we hope to achieve, but does it really speak to you? At the end of the day, physiotherapists and physiotherapist assistants want to know how the fees that are paid to OPA are benefitting them. Our goal is that future communications will better link our strategy to our action, and explain how our work benefits physiotherapists, clinic owners, and the profession as a whole.
We also have welcomed and engaged with the new leadership at the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario (CPO), spending time with the new Registrar and President. The mandate of the CPO to protect the public is not in conflict to the mandate of OPA to be the voice for the physiotherapy profession. Having qualified physiotherapists, appropriately funded and able to work to their full scope of practice is good for Ontarians and Ontario as a whole! After a few meetings with CPO leaders, I think that there is a lot that we can achieve together in keeping with our separate mandates. We may not always agree on all the topics, but we fully agree to work collaboratively and respectfully with each other.
As you know, the OPA Board is looking to hire a new CEO to help lead OPA. We have engaged a company to help with the search, and we hope to have a new CEO identified in February. We will ensure an interim CEO is in place to fulfill any gaps.
What else are we doing at OPA? We continue to:
- advocate with various government components to fully implement our scope of practice,
- advocate for proper compensation via CPC, auto insurance, WSIB, and others,
- educate physiotherapy students on the role of the association in supporting their successful practice,
- support internationally educated physiotherapists,
- educate the public on why physiotherapy matters.
In summary, we continue to engage many stakeholders to advocate for change. We have 5 amazing staff members at OPA who work with countless volunteers to help improve the physiotherapy profession in Ontario! We have 9 Board members who donate many hours for meetings throughout the year to ensure that OPA meets the expectations of most of its members (it would be nice, but unrealistic, to expect that we meet the expectations of all members).
As this is my last Holiday Season Greeting message as OPA President, I would like to thank you all for allowing me to learn so much as a volunteer with OPA! We have had challenging years, and we may have a few more, but we are lucky to be physiotherapists, students, and physiotherapists assistants!
I wish you all health, happiness, and wealth too,
Oren Cheifetz, President
Ontario Physiotherapy Association
