Our Code of Ethics

All contractors/employees will deliver services in accordance with the Consumer Bill of Rights, which includes:

• The informed consent and voluntary participation of the persons served in decisions about service, care, and/or treatment.
• The right of persons to refuse participation in services, clinical studies or other research.
• May be socially or personally nonproductive.
• Privacy and confidentiality protections for the persons served.
• Means of ensuring the integrity of decisions made about care and that they are based solely on the diagnostic and treatment needs of the individual.
• Means of monitoring the relationship between use of service and financial arrangements.
• Means of resolving differences with regard to care and/or treatment decisions.
• Right to file grievances in accordance with prescribed procedures.
• Non-punitive use of discipline and behaviour management techniques.
• Using positive programming as the primary means to encourage changes in behaviours.

All contractors/employees will serve the stakeholders of TACL in accordance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it relates to the individual’s race, ethnicity, language, religion, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, economic status, political affiliation or national ancestry.

All contractors/employees will treat one another and all persons served by TACL in such a way as to preserve their dignity and communicate respect and fairness, i.e., providing information in a truthful, empathic, compassionate, understandable and sensitive way; being aware of individual’s needs, gifts, strengths, potentials, interests, and values; applying appropriate, unbiased, consistent and equitable principles to the circumstances.

All contractors/employees will protect the confidentiality of all information, records and material acquired professionally or otherwise through their contract with TACL by understanding and adhering to the TACL Confidentiality Policy, the Federal Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and any other relevant government acts and regulations.

All contractors/employees are prohibited from behaving in ways that pose a real or perceived conflict of interest during their contract with TACL.

All contractors/employees will provide services using an inclusive, collaborative approach with other family and community resources available and/or necessary to the client. This approach also recognizes that contractors/employees may have limitations in some issues, and when they do not possess the necessary expertise to address a particular issue, they will consult with or refer to an appropriate professional.

All contractors/employees will clearly understand and respect the differences between professional and personal relationships with clients and will behave in ways appropriate to these differences including no intimate or sexual relationships with clients both during and outside of work hours while working with TACL.

All contractors/employees will decline to act on behalf of clients outside of the service mandate and will be consistently aware of managing their personal boundaries in their interactions with clients, stakeholders and co-workers so as to avoid using undue or unhealthy influence, expert position and/or inappropriate use of power. Contractors/Employees will not accept gifts from, or trade, or barter with clients.

All contractors/employees will promote and maintain on-going quality improvement process approaches that continually up-grades their service delivery methods and knowledge, skills, education and training relevant to their area of practice.

All contractors/employees will be responsive and open to the needs and desires of consumers and potential consumers through formal and informal means of input into program planning, service delivery and advocacy.

All contractors/employees will perform services in a manner that promotes integrity and ethical decision-making with the primary purpose being professional responsibility, not personal preference. When a conflict exists, priority is always given to the needs and rights of the client.

All contractors/employees are willing to accept full and complete accountability for their own acts and omissions, exhibiting self-discipline and the pursuit of excellence in all activities.

All contractors/employees will participate and cooperate in resolving their own and others’ grievance processes and outcomes.

All contractors/employees are prohibited from giving or receiving preferential treatment for the organization’s services.

All contractors/employees will respect professional work or ideas created by others by giving full credit and citations when reproduced in any form.

All contractors/employees will inclusively adhere to the Code of Ethics of their respective professions, and to the TACL Code of Ethics in all other areas.