Can my therapist and prescriber coordinate my ADHD care in Ontario?

Yes, with your consent, and with each clinician in their own lane

Coordination means your therapist and your prescriber work from the same picture: the same goals, the same sense of what is improving and what is not, and the same plan for what happens next. It does not mean the therapist adjusts your treatment or the prescriber runs your therapy. Nothing is shared until you say it can be.

The reason to bother is consistency. ADHD care often changes in the first months: a treatment plan is set, adjusted, and adjusted again, while therapy is teaching you to notice patterns and build routines. If the two clinicians never talk, you become the messenger, and people with ADHD are not usually keen to add a messaging job to their week. When they do talk, your therapist can tell your prescriber that mornings are still the hard part, and your prescriber can tell your therapist what the plan is for the next month.

Ontario privacy law sets the terms for what can be shared

PHIPA applies to virtual care exactly as it applies to a clinic visit; the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has said so plainly. Under PHIPA, a health information custodian needs your consent, express or implied, before disclosing your personal health information to another provider, and you can limit what is shared or withdraw consent later. In practice this means a short written consent that names both clinicians and describes what may pass between them.

Social workers carry a second layer of rules. The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, in force since September 8, 2023, includes Principle IV on the social work record and Principle V on confidentiality. A Registered Social Worker must keep a record of your care and may disclose information only with your consent or where the law requires it. Under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, section 27(2) paragraph 14, psychotherapy is a controlled act, and OCSWSSW members are authorized to perform it within their own statute and by-laws.

The upshot for you: coordination is legal, common and bounded. You control the tap.

Who does what in coordinated ADHD care

Roles do not blur just because the clinicians talk. This is the split at Finding Focus, and it is close to the split you will find anywhere in Ontario.

When coordination matters most

You do not need constant contact between the two. A few moments carry most of the value.

• While a treatment plan is being adjusted: your therapist sees you weekly and can describe what changed, which is more useful than a single check-in impression.
• When a new symptom could be anxiety or depression rather than ADHD: the therapist flags it, the prescriber assesses it. If you are in distress now, call or text 9-8-8, Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline, or call 911.
• Before a workplace or school accommodation request: the prescriber writes the documentation, the therapist helps you prepare the conversation.
• When you are thinking of stopping any part of treatment: both clinicians should hear it from you, not from a missed appointment.
• After a long gap: a short update from each side restarts care without repeating your whole history.

What coordination looks like in practice at Finding Focus

Finding Focus assessments and follow-up care are delivered by licensed nurse practitioners and clinicians working with Finding Focus, and therapy is delivered by a Registered Social Worker on the same care team. Because both sit inside one clinic, the consent step happens at intake and the shared record is already in one place. Details are on the therapy for Finding Focus patients page.

What typically flows to the prescriber: the therapy goals you set, whether you are attending, patterns the therapist observes that bear on the treatment plan, and any safety concern. What typically flows to the therapist: the current plan and any change that might affect how you show up in sessions. You can narrow either list. See how therapy works for the booking and consent steps.

If your prescriber is outside Finding Focus

Coordination still works when your prescriber is a family doctor or another clinic; it just takes one more step. You sign a consent naming the outside prescriber, and the therapist sends brief updates or answers a specific question by secure means. The outside clinician is under the same PHIPA rules and their own college's standards, so they will usually ask for that consent in writing before exchanging anything.

If your diagnosis came from Finding Focus and your family doctor is continuing care, the healthcare-provider report ($99) is written for exactly that handover. It gives the outside prescriber the assessment findings and plan in one document, so the therapist and the doctor are working from the same starting point. Whether a family doctor takes over ongoing care is their decision, and some prefer to keep the prescribing where the assessment was done.