How to Submit Grievances
The Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Psychiatry (WCM) is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists. WCM will comply with all legal and ethical responsibilities to be non-discriminatory in promotional activities, program content and in the treatment of program participants. The monitoring and assessment of compliance with these standards will be the responsibility of the members of the Continuing Education committee in consultation with the CE Chair.
While WCM goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues which come to the attention of the program staff which require intervention and/or action on the part of the program staff or an officer of WCM. This procedural description serves as a guideline for handling such grievances.
When a participant, either orally or in written format, files a grievance and expects action on the complaint, the following actions will be taken.
1. If the grievance concerns a speaker, the content presented by the speaker, or the style of presentation, the individual filing the grievance will be asked to put his/her comments in written format. The CE Chair will then pass on the comments to the speaker, assuring the confidentiality of the grieved individual.
2. If the grievance concerns a workshop offering, its content, level of presentation, or the facilities in which the workshop was offered, the convention chair will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, the convention chair will:
a. attempt to move the participant to another workshop, or
b. provide a credit for a subsequent year's workshop, or
c. provide a partial or full refund of the workshop fee.
Actions 2b and 2c will require a written note, documenting the grievance, for record keeping purposes. The note need not be signed by the grieved individual.
3. If the grievance concerns WCM’s CE program, in a specific regard, the CE Chair will attempt to arbitrate.
To submit a complaint, or if you have additional questions, please contact Theodora Kanellopoulos at Dok2002@med.cornell.edu or by phone at 914-997-5201. Alternatively, correspondence can be mailed to WCM, c/o Dr. Theodora Kanellopoulos at 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, New York, 10605.