MFIPPA and PHIPA provide civil immunity for any decision to disclose or not to disclose made reasonably in the circumstances and in good faith.

Acutely Elevated Risk

For the purposes of the following Four Filter Approach, “acutely elevated risk” refers to any situation negatively affecting the health or safety of an individual, family, or specific group of people, where professionals are permitted in legislation to share personal information in order to eliminate or reduce imminent harm to an individual or others.

For example, under section 42(1)(h) of FIPPA, section 32(h) of MFIPPA and section 40(1) of PHIPA, the following permissions are available.

Section 42(1)(h) of FIPPA and section 32(h) of MFIPPA read: An institution shall not disclose personal information in its custody or under its control except,

in compelling circumstances affecting the health or safety of an individual if upon disclosure notification is mailed to the last known address of the individual to whom the information relates.

*Note: written notification may be made through methods other than mail to the last known address. The individual should be provided with a card or document listing the names and contact information of the agencies/organizations to whom their personal information was disclosed at filters three and four, at or shortly after the time they are provided information on the proposed intervention.

Section 40(1) of PHIPA reads: A health information custodian may disclose personal health information about an individual if the custodian believes on reasonable grounds that the disclosure is necessary for the purpose of eliminating or reducing a significant risk of serious bodily harm to a person or group of persons.

“Significant risk of serious bodily harm” includes a significant risk of both serious physical as well as serious psychological harm. Like other provisions of PHIPA, section 40(1) is subject to the mandatory data minimization requirements set out in section 30 of PHIPA.

Four Filter Approach to Information Sharing

In many multi-sectoral risk intervention models, such as Situation Tables, the discussions may include sharing limited personal information about an individual(s) such that their identity is revealed. For that reason, the Ministry encourages professionals to obtain express consent of the individual(s) before the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. If express consent is obtained to disclose personal information to specific agencies/organizations involved in a multi-sectoral risk intervention model for the purpose of harm reduction, the disclosing professional may only rely on consent to disclose personal information and collaborate with the specific agencies/organizations and only for that purpose.