BBS Update

March 2009

By Mary Riemersma, Executive Director

Following are some of the actions/discussions that occurred at the February 2009 meeting of the Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Video Supervision
The BBS approved the recommendation of the Policy and Advocacy Committee to sponsor legislation to allow all hours of supervision in settings other than private practice to be performed by live video conference. Video supervision would make supervision more available in underserved areas of the state where there are not enough licensed therapists available to provide supervision. The request for the video supervision came from the California Mental Health Directors Association, the Mental Health Association of California, the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies, and the Association of Community Human Service Agencies. Hopefully, this legislation will be achieved in 2009 and will be effective by the beginning of next year. CAMFT sees no reason to not support the allowance of unlimited video supervision and originally requested that the BBS to at least consider permitting some of the hours of supervision to be gained by video conferencing.

Fingerprinting of all Licensees and Registrants
Every registrant and licensee who is renewing a license or registration after October 31, 2009, who does not have an electronic record of his or her fingerprints in the Department of Justice criminal offender record identification database, must submit such an electronic record prior to his or her renewal. While the electronic record of fingerprinting is not a condition of renewal, persons who fail to comply in a timely manner may be issued citations and fined. If you were licensed prior to the late 90s, it is likely that you do not have on file an electronic record of your fingerprints. Plan to take care to meet this requirement before your license comes up for renewal.

Even if prior crimes are discovered through the fingerprinting that have not been previously disclosed by licensees and registrants, the BBS may not be able to take disciplinary action if statutes of limitations have been exhausted. However, the Board could issue citations, which are not disciplinary actions, for failing to disclose previously committed crimes.

Examination Review
The BBS has created a committee to review the examination program. The Committee's February meeting focused on exam development, including the particulars on what is involved in an occupational analysis. The occupational analysis involves surveying persons licensed in the profession to discover the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the tasks necessary to be minimally competent in a profession. The BBS typically conducts an occupational analysis for the professions it regulates every five years. The BBS has a number of meetings of the Examination Review Committee scheduled throughout the year. Licensees, applicants, and persons in the examination process are encouraged to attend. Attending a meeting of the Committee would be helpful for those wishing to better understand the examination process as well as to offer constructive feedback to improve the examinations. The dates of these meetings are on the BBS website: www.bbs.ca.gov.

MFT Education Legislation
The MFT education legislation that moved along virtually unopposed last year in the legislature was vetoed by the Governor. The BBS has reintroduced the same legislation this year, SB 33, with Senator Correa, once again, as the author. This legislation, which CAMFT supports, makes major revisions to the MFT Educational Requirements. CAMFT believes these changes are needed by and beneficial to the profession. It does not impact persons already licensed or in the process of qualifying for licensure and will only affect persons beginning graduate study on or after August 1, 2012. No curriculum requirements will be eliminated. Some of the most significant proposed changes follow:

The number of units of study will increase from a minimum of 48 semester/72 quarter units to 60 semester/90 quarter units.

The legislation essentially eliminates the specific unit requirements on most courses, e.g., there would be no requirement for a two-semester/three-quarter unit course in psychopharmacology, merely a requirement for psychopharmacology.

Practicum would increase from a minimum of 150 hours to 225 hours of which up to 75 of these hours may be in client-centered advocacy.

Education would be expanded with content in case management, dual diagnoses, working with serious mental illness, collaborative treatment, disaster and trauma response, culture and norms of the public and community mental health systems of care, expanded cultural diversity training, amongst other areas of content enhancement.

Experience in client-centered advocacy would be countable up to 250 hours of experience.

The bill also requires applicants for MFT licensure to submit W-2 forms or verifications of volunteer employment for each setting in which the applicant gained experience when submitting a license application.

Omnibus Legislation
The Board will once again pursue various changes to the licensing law for MFTs as part of a Committee Bill. Such bills can be introduced at any time and are limited by bill deadlines. Last year this legislation was SB 1779, and it too was vetoed by the Governor. It will contain, amongst other things, a provision that CAMFT requested, limiting the BBS, when publishing citations and fines under $1,500 on the Internet, to a maximum of five years. This bill will also add the title, "Marriage and Family Therapist Act," to the licensing law.

Examination Statistics

Complete statistics on the results of BBS examinations are on the BBS website at www.bbs.ca.gov. For the second half of last year, examination results were:

• MFT written examination: 1159 took the exam, 59 percent passed; for first time examinees, 76 percent passed.
• CSW written examination: 676 took the exam, 57 percent passed; for first time examinees, 73 percent passed.
• MFT clinical vignette examination: 1056 took the exam, 69 percent passed; for first time examinees, 72 percent passed.
• CSW clinical vignette examination: 855 took the exam, 54 percent passed; for first time examinees, 55 percent passed.

For the first half of last year, examination results were:

• MFT written examination: 1126 took the exam, 67 percent passed; for first time examinees, 82 percent passed.
• CSW written examination: 897 took the exam, 60 percent passed; for first time examinees, 75 percent passed.
• MFT clinical vignette examination: 1125 took the exam, 67 percent passed; for first time examinees, 75 percent passed.
• CSW clinical vignette examination: 775 took the exam, 43 percent passed; for first time examinees, 46 percent passed.

Degrees from State Approved Educational Programs
A regulatory change pursued by the BBS has been approved by the Office of Administrative Law in California and took affect February 27, 2009.  This regulation permits the BBS to recognize applicants for MFT licensure and MFT intern registration where the degree was obtained from a Bureau on Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education approved school between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2012, as long as the school held an approval to operate as of June 30, 2007.  CAMFT was in support of this regulatory change in order to not jeopardize the degrees being gained by students in “approved” educational programs.

Licensed Mental Health Providers Education Fund
A presentation was made to the BBS and materials were distributed on the Licensed Mental Health Providers Education Fund.  This program provides loan reimbursements for persons committed to working in underserved areas providing mental health services.  A nominal portion of license renewal fees are used to provide the funding for these loan reimbursements.  Additional funding will also be coming from the Mental Health Services Act.  The Health Professions Education Foundation and the Office of Statewide Healthcare Planning and Development administer the selection of recipients and distribution of these funds to psychologists, clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists.  An advisory committee assists in the selection of deserving recipients.  Awards are made twice each year.  
 
New Chair and Vice Chair Elected
The BBS elected a new Chair, Renee Lonner, LCSW and a new Vice Chair, Elise Froistad, LMFT.  Both will assume office in June 2009.

Staff Furloughs
The BBS, like the rest of the State, is grappling with trying to continue to operate as normal, while at the same time having fewer staff hours to carry out the affairs of the Board.  Like other State employees, they have been directed to not work two Fridays of every month, for which staff members are not compensated.