Support for physicians living with disability and/or chronic illness: Peer tips

If you have disability insurance, contact your broker or carrier. You may also have critical illness insurance and short-term disability coverage.   

If you and your partner have separate extended health benefits packages, you may be able to pause or minimize the cost of one partner’s insurance premiums and reactivate full insurance benefits later. Before attempting to optimize health insurance benefits between partners, it is important to talk to an insurance broker to ensure gaps in disability (or other) insurance are not being created. You can contact a licensed OMA Insurance advisor at 1-800-268-7215.  

Seek emotional support early, such as from a psychologist, counsellor or support group. You can also contact the PHP.  

You can also refer to the support resources listed on this page. 

Know that you are not alone. There are thousands of physicians across Canada living and working with disability.   

As noted in a blue side box on the page, consider joining the Physician Health Inclusion community, a free private group on LinkedIn for Canadian physicians or medical trainees with disability and chronic conditions. They are offering a pilot peer mentorship program for physicians across Canada. Reach out to them if you are interested in connecting with peers in medicine who share similar experiences as you.   

Also as noted in a blue side box on the page, if you are a family physician, consider joining an Ontario College of Family Physicians free private support group for family physicians with disability and chronic illness.   

Consider seeking out the services of an occupational therapist to help figure out which accommodations and/or changes in your scope of practice will be most helpful. This applies to physicians with a wide range of disabilities and chronic conditions, including neurodiverse physicians.  

If you live with chronic illness that waxes and wanes, make a flare day plan.  

For example,  

• Know who to call when you need to cancel  
• Know who might be available for emergency coverage 
• Keep time blocked in next week’s schedule for emergency re-bookings  

If an accommodation is agreed upon, ask for the arrangement to be documented clearly, including any review date or process for making changes. Written documentation can help everyone understand the arrangement and support continuity if responsibilities or circumstances change.

CPSO: If you are ill or on disability for an extended period which requires that you cease to practice , you can contact the CMPA to determine if it would be appropriate for you to sign the CPSO’s Cease to Practise Undertaking. If you sign this, you will not be required to sign up with one of the CPD tracking organizations. Before signing an undertaking or making another change that may affect the ability to practise, you should contact the CMPA.  For more information on the CPSO’s Cease to Practice Undertaking, refer to the CPSO's Continuing professional development FAQs, questions five to 11.

CFPC: It is recommended that you complete the minimum of 25 credits per year; however, if you are unable to do so in a given year, there are no immediate consequences to your Mainpro+ cycle or standing. Please note, there may be penalties from some licensing bodies for not meeting the annual minimum. You have until the end of your five-year cycle to meet your overall credit requirements. Mainpro+ participants who will be away from their medical practice for a period of six months or longer due to personal illness, sabbatical, parental leave, or to be the primary caregiver for a family member with an illness, may be eligible for a one-year cycle extension. If you have questions, please contact mainprocredits@cfpc.ca.

RCPSC: If you are absent from practice or related professional activities for four months to one year, you can request a one-year extension to your CPD cycle. If you are absent for more than one year, you can request to receive a new cycle when you return to practice; this includes multiple leaves of absence that add up to one year. 

Contact your medical membership organizations (e.g. OMA, CPSO, CMPA, etc.) to find out if they offer special pricing for part-time members, or if you can pause your membership during a leave of absence.  

• OMA: Options include going into the “inactive” category or the “part-time practice” category. The fee for the inactive category is $100 per year, and the fee for the part-time practice category is $956 per year. To explore these options, contact Membership Services at 1-800-268-7215 or email info@oma.org. 

• CPSO: A reduction in your annual membership fee may be possible based on extenuating personal circumstances. You can contact the CPSO to find out more information about what may be possible for you. Email inquiries@cpso.on.ca or send them a message through your CPSO Portal account. 
  
  
• CFPC: A reduced fee may be available if you meet certain criteria during the CFPC billing period (July 1 to June 30), including taking a temporary leave of employment of more than four months due to health or family reasons, or having projected net professional earnings of less than $80,000 during the billing period. For more information or to discuss available options, contact membership@cfpc.ca.

• RCPSC: If you anticipate being on leave for more than four months due to health or family reasons, or if your income is less than $40,000 or between $40,000 and $130,000, you can request a reduction in your annual membership dues. You can make this request through your member portal on their website. For more information, call 1-800-461-9598 or email membership@royalcollege.ca.  

• CMPA: While there is no reduced membership fee option if you maintain any level of patient contact in your practice, there is a reduced option for those whose work is solely administrative. To contact the CMPA about your membership, call 1-800-267-6522 and ask to speak to Membership Services. You can also log in to their website and submit an inquiry.

There are many ways to practice medicine, some of which you’ve probably never even considered. Give yourself time – and grace – to explore different options if you need to change your scope of practice. Speak to as many people as possible to find out what might be available and what others in similar situations have done.   

The CPSO’s policy on ensuring competence: changing scope of practice and/or re-entering practice outlines when you need to report a change in your scope of practice.

As outlined in the policy, you are required to inform the CPSO if:   

• There has been a significant change to your scope of practice; or  

• You wish to return to a scope of practice after not practicing it for two consecutive years or more; or 

• You wish to re-enter practice after being absent for two consecutive years or more.  

If you are unsure whether you need to inform the CPSO, contact their member services.  

• Practice-sharing arrangements 
• Part-time locum opportunities 
• One-time events like Pap-apaloozas 
• On-call locum coverage when colleagues are unable to attend after-hours clinics  
• Supporting overflow when another physician needs help managing patient access, such as joining a clinic for a few days to accommodate extra patients 
• Rent a clinic space for a half-day each week to focus on specific procedures  

• Education, including curriculum development and CME for other physicians 

• Health analytics  

• Health communication and writing  

• Health services manager  

• Hospital and health leadership  

• Independent medical evaluator for insurance companies  

• Medical consultant, for everything ranging from being an expert witness, to reviewing files for insurance companies to consulting for the film and television industry  

• Medical science liaison in the pharmaceutical industry  

• Medico-legal careers (e.g. York University’s Certificate in Health Law)  

• Physician advisor for a provincial or national medical association (e.g. PHP, CMPA advisor)  

• Psychotherapy and counselling (e.g. Medical Psychotherapy Association of Canada has a training program)  

• Public health  

• Research  

• Specialization in addiction medicine (CAMH has courses and can retrain from Family Medicine at some PGME sites)  

• Supervising stress tests  

• Surgical or anesthesiologist assistant  

• Teaching in various capacities, including undergraduate lectures, small group sessions, and medical trainees 

• Consider becoming involved in the OMA’s Academic Medicine Forum, which is a group that enhances the engagement of academic physicians belonging to the OMA. You can join the AMF through your OMA MyAccount  

• Virtual medicine through OTNhub  

• Work-life or career coach 

For more ideas, refer to the University of Calgary’s alternative career paths page. You can also join the Facebook private group Physician Side Gigs.  

Finally, for training opportunities, visit the physician re-entry program through the Ministry of Health.  

Learn that disability is common in the medical profession. It can affect physicians at any stage of their career and may be visible or invisible. Recognizing this reality can help foster a culture where physicians feel supported to seek care and accommodations when needed.  

Read up on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Ontario Human Rights code to understand your colleagues’ rights, and your responsibilities to your colleagues with disability and/or chronic illness.  

Every person living with a disability/chronic illness has different needs, and those needs may change over time. Seek to understand your colleague’s perspectives and challenges. Remember that accommodations are not one-size-fits-all. Knowing a colleague's diagnosis does not mean you know what may be best for them in the workplace.   

If you have a colleague with a disability/chronic illness, you can share communities of support for them or let them know about resources. You can share best practices with physician leaders and your physician groups. For example, sharing this page with others, or policies that have been implemented elsewhere (e.g. The Ottawa Hospital).  

Familiarize yourself with accommodations policies and processes in your workplace, and support colleagues who are unfamiliar with these procedures, if they need them.  

We often think of accommodations as special measures provided only in response to a disability-related request. In reality, workplaces routinely adjust schedules, duties, workflows, and provide tools to reflect the individual circumstances of physicians and help them work effectively. 

For example: 

• Leaving clinic early one day per week to pick up children. 

• Receiving assistance with certain procedures because the work is more efficient with additional support. 

• Offering senior physicians scheduling preferences, such as fewer evening or overnight shifts. 

• Providing dictation software or other technology that reduces administrative burden. 

• Using an AI scribe or other documentation support to reduce charting time. 

• Adjusting clinic workflows, appointment lengths, or patient assignments to support effective and sustainable practice. 

Most people view these as common-sense workplace adjustments rather than "accommodations." Yet when similar modifications are requested because of a disability, they may be perceived as exceptional or burdensome, which may lead to discrimination. 

Disability-related accommodations should not be viewed as special benefits or preferential treatment. They are one form of a broader practice that already exists in many workplaces: adapting work arrangements so people can participate fully and contribute effectively. 

Accommodation is also not just about removing work that someone cannot do. Often, the most effective solutions involve rethinking how work is organized, supported, or scheduled so physicians can contribute at their highest capacity. 

Even though you work in health care, a colleague’s health condition or disability is private and must be treated confidentially. Information collected to support an accommodation should be limited to what is needed to understand the person’s functional limitations and accommodation needs. This information should only be shared with people who need it to arrange or implement the accommodation, and only with the person’s consent.  

Know that internalized ableism is common in our society. Recognize when you are experiencing ableist thoughts and try to counteract that narrative. For example, a physician with a chronic illness requests a modified schedule, and you think, “Maybe clinical practice isn’t the right fit for them”. When you encounter resistance within yourself about the need for change, be prepared to reflect and ask yourself, “why do I feel that way?”. If it’s because something has always been done a certain way, ask yourself, “why is this the case?”. Be open to looking deeper.   

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Ableism is deeply entrenched in the culture of the medical profession and well documented in the literature on physician attitudes towards both disabled patients and towards themselves and their own performance.   

Refer to this resource, “Am I Ableist”, written by medical students, to learn more.  

Use principles of universal design to create accessible spaces for everyone.

Physical space examples include:

• Make sure the staff door is accessible 
• Make sure the staff parking area has an accessible parking spot 
• Have more than one lighting option in exam rooms  
• Have a quiet space available for charting

Non-physical space examples include:

• Send emails in standard, sans-serif black fonts (for colour-blindness and screen readers)
• Send meeting agendas and other reading materials well in advance
• Choose hybrid meetings
• Make sure your clinic website includes information on the nearest accessible public transit option and accessible parking location

If you are a physician lead, implement a position statement and/or policies in your group to foster inclusion and accessibility (e.g. a policy on coverage during leave, a policy on accommodations, etc.).  For example, refer to this position statement from The Ottawa Hospital.  

Is every part of your office (not just the structure, but the policies and systems) accessible to patients? If not, it isn’t accessible for staff either. Consider also doing an accessibility audit of your clinic’s website.    

• Use the primary care accessibility checklist to assess how accessible your clinic is for patients; apply these same principles to staff accessibility  

• Use the 20 questions for disability-inclusive employers list to assess how physicians with disability and/or chronic illness are treated in your organization and how the systems and policies in place either perpetuate or reduce ableism 

Everyone gets sick at some point, so it shouldn’t be a crisis when someone needs to take time off. Have a cancellation plan. Give receptionists a script when they’re cancelling due to physician illness that demonstrates the importance of staying home when you’re sick. Know which locums are available on short notice. Have a system to get urgent messages covered by whoever is on call that day. Don’t leave it to the person who is having the health emergency to sort this out.  

Similarly, when someone with a disability requests an accommodation or proposes a policy change that they see as more equitable, and your reflexive response is that it’s not possible, try replacing that rejection with curiosity. How might it be possible? There’s a good chance the person making the request has already figured that part out.  

Physicians with disability and/or chronic illness may offer unique insights that can benefit your physician group and patients. Ensuring appropriate accommodations are in place will help these perspectives to be fully included. Where appropriate, invite and value the input of colleagues with disability and/or chronic illness in clinical, operational and quality improvement discussions.