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Centre for Clinical Ethics

Our purpose at the Centre for Clinical Ethics is to provide expert guidance in compassionate and thoughtful ethical decision-making across health care. We do this through education, case consultations, policy development and research.

Our 5 guiding principles are grounded in our Catholic tradition and values:

  • Human dignity – Respect for human dignity and personhood
  • Inclusivity – Care for all who need us
  • Partnership – Collaborate with patients, families, caregivers, communities, healthcare providers, learners and leaders
  • Trust – Foster and develop relationships of trust
  • Reflective leadership – Bring creativity and innovation to healthcare settings and the field of bioethics

Anyone can request a consultation with the Ethics team.

Please contact our office 416-530-6750 during business hours or page the ethicist on-call at 416-864-5070 #4211 for emergencies/after-hours. If paging, please leave your 10 digit phone number and extension.

To learn more about the Centre for Clinical Ethics, please see our report online here.

The GREAT Framework

As we make decisions in health care and administration in the hospital, it is important to do so with a principle-based, ethical approach. The Centre for Clinical Ethics at Unity Health Toronto has launched a new ethics decision-making framework called GREAT.

This framework will help us follow these key steps when making key decisions at work:

  1. Get background information
  2. Identify initial judgements
  3. Distill judgments
  4. Name the options
  5. Assess the options
  6. Reflect on organizational values
  7. Articulate the choice
  8. Reflect and learn

Access the GREAT Framework here, an associated worksheet for clinical cases here and the organizational decision-making tool here.

This framework replaces the previous ethics decision-making tool (YODA) and has been designed to benefit all staff at Unity Health Toronto – clinical and non-clinical – in making work-related decisions.

Visit our website: ccethics.com.

Last updated February 27, 2024