Philip Klassen

Dr. Philip Klassen is Vice-President, Medical Affairs, at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is also a practicing forensic psychiatrist, and works in the Traumatic Stress Clinic at Ontario Shores.

Administratively, Dr. Klassen is responsible, in partnership with the Senior Management Team and interprofessional colleagues at Ontario Shores, for quality improvement, utilization management, medical staff evaluation, recruitment and retention, and education. Dr. Klassen is the executive sponsor of the hospital’s implementation of clinical practice guidelines, and quality-based procedures, and was Co-Chair of the provincial QBP expert panel for schizophrenia.

Academically, Dr. Klassen has written and presented on clinical and quality-related topics. He has been awarded for course design, and remains an active teacher at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has a special interest in global mental health and has led the creation of the first mental health and diversion court in Africa.

Clinically, Dr. Klassen is active in the areas of forensic risk assessment and management, clinical sexology, assessment of fitness for duty, assessment of trauma outcome, and other forensic domains. He has also been an external reviewer for provincial and hospital programs.

Research Synopsis

Areas of particular interest include violence risk assessment, clinical sexology, assessment of post-traumatic symptomatology, and assessment of professional misconduct