BBS Update

May 2009

By Mary Riemersma, Executive Director

Following are some of the actions taken by the Board of Behavioral Sciences at their recent meeting in late May 2009.

Fingerprinting of all Licensees
BBS Regulation to require the fingerprinting of all licensees not previously fingerprinted was approved by the Office of Administrative Law on May 20, 2009, and will take effect thirty days from approval.†License renewals going out in July and thereafter will require licentiates, not previously fingerprinted, to comply with the fingerprinting requirement. Failure to comply with the fingerprinting requirement would be grounds for disciplinary action and would most likely result in a citation and fine. Those who must comply with this requirement are expected to retain their receipts for at least three years.

Legislative Positions Taken by the BBS
The Board took a position of support on AB 244 (Beall), a bill that provides for parity for all mental disorders.

The Board took a position of oppose on AB 484 (Eng), a bill that would require licensing boards to provide the Franchise Tax Board with the name and social security number or taxpayer identification number of each licensee. The bill would provide for the suspension of the license if taxes are not paid as prescribed.

The Board took a position of support on CAMFT-sponsored AB 681 (Hernandez), a bill that provides an exception for reports required as a result of permissive breaches of confidentiality.

The Board took a position of support on CAMFT-sponsored AB 1113 (Lowenthal), a bill that would permit MFT interns to be employed within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The Board took a position of oppose unless amended on AB 1310 (Hernandez), a bill that would provide for the collection of data from health care providers. The information proposed to be collected is deemed excessive.

The Board took a position of support on SB 43 (Alquist), a bill that also would authorize licensing boards to collect information regarding the cultural and linguistic competency of licentiates.

The Board took a position of support on SB 296 (Lowenthal), a bill sponsored by the California Coalition for Mental Health, to fix problems consumers experience with managed health care.

The Board took a position of oppose unless amended on SB 389 (Negrete McLeod), a bill addressing the fingerprinting of licentiates. This bill would conflict with the finger-printing requirement the BBS just had approved by the Office of Administrative Law.

The Board took a position of oppose on SB 543 (Leno), a bill that would permit a minor to seek treatment without parental authorization if the minor is 12 or older and sufficiently mature to participate in the therapy. The therapist could involve the parent if deemed appropriate by the therapist.

The Board took a position of support on SB 788 (Wyland), a bill intended to regulate licensed professional clinical counselors.

The Board discussed legislation that it may pursue this year in a Committee bill, or if not this year, in 2010:

Incentivizing hours of experience when working with couples and families

With regard to the required 500 hours of experience for aspiring MFTs, an incentive would be provided for double-counting up to 150 hours of experience working with couples and families.

Telephone counseling, crisis counseling by telephone, and telemedicine

These types of hours would be combined into one category for a maximum of 375 hours.

Supervision ratio change for post graduate aspiring marriage and family therapists

Rather than the ten to one ratio that is currently applicable to post graduate MFT experience, one hour of individual or two hours of group supervision would be required for the first ten hours of experience gained in a work setting in any week, and one additional hour of individual supervision or two hours of group supervision would be required for any additional hours of counseling/psychotherapy gained in that week. Thus if an intern gained 30 hours of client contact in a week in one work setting and was receiving individual supervision, the intern would be required to have only two hours of supervision.

Allow any types of hours to count while a trainee

This change would permit trainees to count hours of experience for administrating and evaluating psychological tests, writing clinical reports, and doing progress or process notes.

SB 1441 (passed in 2008)

The BBS discussed SB 1441, which was signed into law in 2008, and requires the development of standards for healing arts licensing boards, such as the BBS, to address licensees and registrants who have substance abuse addictions. The legislation established a Substance Abuse Coordination Committee charged with developing uniform standards by January 2010 that each healing arts board will be required to use in taking action against licensees and registrants. These standards are to be applied through a formal recovery program or probation monitoring. In the case of the BBS, since they have no formal recovery program, the standards will be applied in probation monitoring.

The next meeting of the BBS is scheduled for August 29, 2009, a Saturday, in order to attract greater attendance from consumers, licensees, and registrants.