Dr. Lee de Bie joins St. Joseph’s Health System as Clinical Ethicist and Ethics Program Lead
St. Joseph’s Health System welcomed Dr. Lee de Bie as Clinical Ethicist and Lead of the System’s Ethics Program on March 18.
“I’m excited to join St. Joe’s in a role where I can both support excellent care for patients, residents and families throughout the region, as well as contribute to system development and decision-making, as well as staff and physician support,” said Dr. de Bie, who recently completed an 18-month Clinical, Organizational, and Research Ethics Fellowship with the Centre for Clinical Ethics at Unity Health Toronto and the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. de Bie has led ethics consultation with clinical teams on a variety of topics and contributed to organizational ethics work, such as review of grateful patient fundraising programs, policy development on gender-affirming care, and recommendations for the allocation of limited resources in the developmental disability sector. Dr. de Bie has also collaborated on several ethics projects with people with lived experience, including development of ethics education for peer supporters on Medical Assistance in Dying and an ethical reflection tool for coproduced program evaluation.
Dr. de Bie has given Ethics Grand Rounds on topics like recognizing ableism in everyday ethical decision-making, substitute decision-making in diverse family constellations, and what mental health service users/patients can teach us about ethics. One of Dr. de Bie’s current projects is to develop training that addresses the ethically salient aspects of the proposed Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Healthcare Standards around issues of capacity and consent.
In their new role at St. Joseph’s Health System, Dr. de Bie will work collaboratively with Clinical Ethicist Dr. Steve Abdool to lead the Ethics Program. Dr. de Bie will provide ethics consultation to patients, families, physicians, staff, and leadership affiliated with the St. Joseph’s Health System member organizations on a wide breadth of issues in clinical practice, organizational decision-making, and policy review. They will also facilitate ethics education, supervise ethics trainees, conduct research ethics review, as well as lead and support ethics scholarship.
Dr. de Bie initially completed professional training in social work, followed by a graduate degree in bioethics, a PhD in social work and gender studies and a postdoctoral fellowship in enhancing equity in teaching and learning. They began their clinical practice in community mental health crisis response and have been embedded in disability and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities for the past 15 years. Prior to entering bioethics full-time, they held roles as an accessibility specialist, community engaged research facilitator, health professions education researcher, patient engagement consultant, and social work and critical disability studies instructor.
Dr. de Bie is an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Social Work at McMaster University and will hold an Assistant Professor (status-only) appointment at the University of Toronto. Their research program focuses on disability, mental health, and neurodiversity ethics from the standpoint of lived experience, peer support ethics, building ethics capacity in communities, and advancing equity in healthcare and health professions.
Our thanks to Dr. Steve Abdool for his expertise and guidance as the SJHS Interim Ethics Lead in addition to his clinical role over the past nine months. We are grateful for his continued leadership and support as Dr. de Bie transitions into the role full-time.