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Meeting with your Legislator:
When attempting to set up a meeting: be polite, be specific and be
persistent. To set up a meeting with your elected official, you
should call the local office directly, explain that you are a
“constituent” and that you would like to set up a brief
meeting to talk about “X” issue. For
instance:
“Hello, my name is John Smith. I am a licensed marriage and
family therapist (or CAMFT member) and am a constituent of Senator
Jones. I would like to schedule an appointment with Senator Jones
to personally introduce myself, and to discuss some issues of importance
to therapists and their patients”. (If there are specific
issues, you can identify them) “What would be a good time
for me to drive to his/her office to meet?”
Once you have set up the meeting:
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Confirm the meeting the day before;
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It is okay if the legislative assistant meets with you instead of the
elected official;
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Be PREPARED--Be PREPARED;
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Explain who are you, what group you are with and why you are
there;
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Have specific points, arguments and examples;
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If you don’t know an answer, tell them you will send follow up
materials;
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If your purpose is to discuss legislation surrounding your profession,
be prepared to explain what an LMFT does, the scope of practice and
education/experience requirements;
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Leave a business card or contact information;
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Be on time and look professional; and,
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Send a thank you card after the visit!!!!
During the meeting you could follow the sample
script:
Hi. My name is John Smith and I work as marriage and family
therapist (am a member of CAMFT) and wanted to discuss some issues of
importance to marriage and family therapists and their patients.
(Depending on what you are there to talk about, and it might just be a
general meet and greet, you can use the bullet points below to help you
formulate some talking points):
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Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists are mental health
professionals who work with individuals, couples, families and groups to
cure or relieve mental, emotional, and relational concerns of all
kinds. LMFTs diagnose and treat severe mental illnesses such as:
schizophrenia; schizoaffective disorder; bipolar disorder; major
depressive disorders; panic disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder;
autism; anorexia; and, bulimia. LMFTs are reimbursed by health
care plans and providers for their services. LMFTs work in private
practice and a variety of other settings throughout California such as
hospitals, government agencies, schools, veteran centers, and
jails. LMFTs have minimally acquired two-year masters degrees,
3,000 hours of supervised experience, and have passed two rigorous
exams.
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CAMFT (CAMFT has 30,000 members throughout California, and ____
members in their specific district. [You can get that exact number
by calling CAMFT.] CAMFT represents the interests of licensed
marriage and family therapists and is dedicated to advancing the
profession, maintaining high standards of professional ethics and
upholding the qualifications for the profession. CAMFT also
advocates for the advancement of mental health generally and the
protection of the mental health consumer.
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Other issues of interest may include such things as: mental health
parity; patient access to care; health care plan and insurers policies
regarding “medical necessity”, administrative complexities,
or phantom panels; mental health care generally. Before discussing
these more specific issues, it would be wise to set up a conference call
with Cathy Atkins or Jill Epstein to discuss the issues of the date,
current status of laws and legislative agenda of CAMFT.
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Please remember that this is NOT the place to talk about your concerns
regarding the current reimbursement rates of mental health
providers.
| Tips for contacting legislators |
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California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists |
7901 Raytheon Road, San Diego, CA 92111-1606
Phone: (858) 292-2638 | Fax: (858) 292-2666
©Copyright 2012 California Association
of Marriage and Family Therapists
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