Social workers barred from affiliation with conversion therapy

The provincial association that regulates New Brunswick social workers has banned its members from being affiliated with conversion therapy, a move it hopes similar regulatory bodies follow suit.

The New Brunswick Association of Social Workers adopted and implemented its "Standards Regarding Conversion Therapy," a 13-page document given to each of its 2,000-plus members outlining their ethical obligations and responsibility to clients and the profession.

Geraldine Poirier-Baiani, the president of the association's board, said there are talks in some American states and Canadian provinces to legally ban the practice some jurisdictions having already done so but it has not been outlawed in New Brunswick.

Conversion therapy aims to alter same-sex attraction through a variety of physical, emotional and cognitive interventions with the goal of promoting heterosexuality.

"We took it upon ourselves," Poirier-Baiani said, "to, in addition to our code of ethics, to have standards which would make it perfectly clear that conversion therapy goes against the code of ethics, that it's a harmful practice, that it can hurt people, and that anyone who practises social work who does conversion therapy is doing malpractice."

She said feedback from the members was "overwhelmingly" positive, and the standards are a formal way of making their stance on the issue clear.

'You can't be doing this stuff on the side'

The new document uses sections from the association's code of ethics to clarify how each standard must be met. It states that conversion therapy, or similar practices, is a "banned practice" for New Brunswick social workers, and there are no instance where involvement would be acceptable.

That includes personal time, Poirier-Baiani said.

"Once a social worker always a social worker," she said. "You can't be doing this stuff on the side. If you're doing it on the side, you're practising social work."

The penalties vary, she said, from counselling or training to revoking licences.

The new standards come a month after a CBC News story of two New Brunswick men who survived conversion therapy, in one case delivered by his church,and called for greater protections for LGBTQ youth.

The association is hoping that other regulatory bodies for psychologists, nurses and doctors, for instance follow their lead and adopt official standards.

"Anyone who's in a helping profession should and we would like to see the Department of Health," Poirier-Baiani said. "Other provinces, you know, have banned health professionals for example and using the conversion therapy."

A CBC News analysis of conversion therapy laws across Canada this summer found that three provinces Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Ontario have laws restricting the practice. And there are two cities, Vancouver and St. Albert, Atla., that have banned it completely.

A spokesperson from the New Brunswick Department of Health said Wednesday afternoon that conversion therapy is not practised in the province.

"Furthermore, the department is unaware of: therapeutic practices supporting conversion therapy in the province, as well as referrals to conversion or reparative therapy," said Alysha Elliott.

"There is no mechanism in place in New Brunswick in which conversion therapy or a referral to conversion therapy can be made."

Elliott said therapeutic services under the addiction and mental health system are "based on values entrenched in a person-centred and recovery-based approach."

Asking federal candidates

Poirier-Baiani said the association isn't lobbying the province at the moment to get legislation on the books, but it is encouraging members to speak to federal election candidates to see where they stand.

"Ideally, if you change the Criminal Code, then that would be the whole country, you know," she said.

The federal government is looking at ways to reform the Criminal Code in order to "combat conversion therapy," according to a letter signed by two Liberal cabinet members and an Alberta MP sent to the provinces in June.