uOttawa Faculty of Medicine’s Full Professor of Psychiatry with cross-appointments in Criminology and Law, Dr. J. Paul Fedoroff has won an award from Crime Prevention Ottawa recognizing people, groups and programs that have made a difference in preventing crime and making communities safer across the city.
This year, Dr. Fedoroff is the winner of the Innovation Award from Crime Prevention Ottawa for his contribution to the safety of the Ottawa community.
Since 2001, Dr. Fedoroff has led the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, which uses a combination of medication and psychotherapy to treat men and women in Eastern Ontario with dangerous or problematic sexual interests.
While the program initially involved assessing and treating convicted sexual offenders, the Sexual Behaviours Clinic has since added treatment to prevent these crimes before they occur. By tailoring their approach and listening to ongoing feedback from patients and families, the team at the Sexual Behaviours Clinic has developed a method that is yielding impressive results – there have been no cases of hands-on reoffending among patients actively receiving treatment.
“We help people change their sexual interests from things that aren’t consensual to healthy interests that are fully consensual,” said Dr. Fedoroff. “One way we do that is with group therapy in which we mix people—some of whom have committed offences, some have gone to jail, some are awaiting sentencing and some have never committed offences—we get them all in the same room so that they can learn from each other.”
The Sexual Behaviours Clinic has been recognized as a world leader in this type of innovative treatment and Dr. Fedoroff is actively sharing the approach with countries around the globe. Dr. Fedoroff and his team are working toward eliminating the need for post-conviction treatment and putting an end to sexual abuse of all types.
“I’m very proud of our success. We’re protecting children by preventing crimes every day. What I’m hoping for is that the word gets out that there is treatment and that the treatment is effective,” added Dr. Fedoroff, who was presented with his award from Crime Prevention Ottawa at a ceremony on Monday, November 5 at City Hall. More information about program and Dr. Fedoroff’s team is available at www.sexualbehavioursclinic.ca.
