Originally published: . Volume 2, No. 9. Source pages: 1, 3.
A bill to terminate the 47 year-old Louisiana State Board of Exam- iners of Psychologists may be heard soon in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. The bill’s author, Senator Willie Mount of Lake Charles is chair of the committee. The committee is scheduled to meet at 9 am this Thursday, May 4. As of Monday, SB 226 was not on the agenda. However, the agenda can change at any time.
Senator Mount’s pro- posal would terminate both the LSBEP and the LPC boards and consolidate their duties into a new board called the “Louisiana Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board.” The bill decreases the number of board members from five to three for psychology, and from ten to three for counselors. The last three members of the new, nine- member board are to come from the public, and these individuals are to be in “no way connected with the practice of any such profession regulated by the board,” noted the proposed legislation.
Based on a letter distributed to both psychologists and counselors, Senator Mount’s reason for her legislation is to cause the two groups to work together. In her letter, published last month in the Times, she wrote, “ With the history of senseless conflict and fighting and the failure of the professions to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the working group, I am left with no other options other than to introduce legislation to consolidate these boards.” (See PT Vol 2, No. 8.) Those in the psychology and counselor communities strongly oppose the legislation. In an email from LSBEP Dr. Joe Comaty to licensed psychologists he noted that licensed professional counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, the Louisiana Association of Counselors, the Louisiana Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, and the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, have all submitted objections to the bill. (See related story, this page.)
The bill and committee meetings can be found on Senate page at http://senate.legis.state.la.us/ses sioninfo/2011/rs/Default.htm
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.