Article archive / January 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 5. Source pages: 1, 4, 5, 6.
Happy New Year! As 2011 washes away to history, we review some of the events and people that made the year interesting.
January
• Governor Jindal met with the Board of Regents and asked them to consider merging the University of New Orleans (UNO) and Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO).
February
• The Behavioral Health Professional Working Group (BHPWG) gave its report to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee in February. The BHPWG had been created by a 2010 Senate resolution and Senator Willie Mount to put pressure on psychologists and licensed professional counselors to develop language for counselor’s scope of practice. Mem- bers of the committee failed to come up with a compromise that satisfied Senator Mount.
According to the final report, the representatives of psychology (Drs. Comaty, Young, Brown, Burnett) suggested a “tiered licensure system with an advanced practice certification in coun- seling…” and “a single regulatory authority for advanced tiers of mental health practice…”
Mount also asked the group to address ways to maximize the mental health services to the state’s citizens and to develop collaborative practice methods, but the group did not reach consensus for these goals. The group’s failure to develop compromises set the stage for Mount to submit a bill to terminate both boards, which she had threatened.
Also in February
• LPA published the results of a survey looking into members’ attitudes about Act 251. The survey, designed by Drs. Robert Storer and Gail Gillespie, indicated that up to 74 percent of members were concerned about Act 251. There was a strong split between medical psychologists and psychologists.
March
• In a March 29 letter addressed to the “Louisiana Psychology Profession,” Senator Mount wrote that she would file a bill to consolidate the psychology and counselor boards, dissolving both. The Senator wrote to the community, “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.”
April
• Senator Mount prefiled her bill to dissolve the psychology board on April 15. Both psychologists and counselors strongly opposed the legislation. Chair Dr. Joe Comaty and APA submitted letters to the Senate Committee. Several psychologists spoke in opposition to the consolidation of the board.
Department of Health and Hospitals Deputy Secretary Kathy Kliebert testified, “We have problems in terms of getting the provider capacity we need for mental health in Louisiana. We know that. Whatever we can do to get people the right level of services and the right credentialed counselor works for everybody.” She also said, “That clarification of the scope of practice [for the LPCs] would certainly help in our future, …”
LPCs waged a comprehensive effort against the consolidated board. Psychologists, on the other hand, following Legislative Chair Dr. Jessica Brown’s directions, exhibited a “measured” approach that some viewed as passive. One critic told the Times, “LPA is the only organization I know that attempts to meet its political goals by doing nothing.” Brown told members of Grassroots, that LAMP could effectively fight this bill if those in LPA would drop their complaints about Act 251.
Also in April
• APA Board of Professional Affairs (BPA) stated that it did not support Louisiana’s restriction of the title of Medical Psychologist to those with prescriptive authority, and discussed “negative implications of this ruling on the identity of psychologists, and on the oversight and regulation of the professional practice of psychology.” BPA noted that it would “take steps to avoid extension of this action into other state regulations.” The BPA views were similar to those expressed in 2010 by CAPP (Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice), APA Board of Educational Affairs, and the Interdivisional Healthcare Committee.
Also in April
• At an April 14 meeting LPA members voted to work on exploring ways to bring the regulation of psychology, by medical psychologists, back under the psychology board. After lengthy discussions LPA members voted favorably on a motion made by Dr. Tom Hannie asking the association to open a dialogue between several bodies, “…on finding a way for psychologists to regulate the psychological practice of all psychologists, while leaving physicians to regulate the prescriptive practice of medical psychologists.”
May
• Under strong opposition from both sides, Senator Mount dropped the bill to dissolve the boards. She substituted another bill, SB 268, in what some considered a bait and switch. Senator McPherson asked her to delay a week.
During the week LAMP was invited to help LPA by the LPA council and the new bill was negotiated behind the scenes. The language of the new bill placed limitations on the expansion of practice for the LPCs and created a consultation and collaboration clause so that a person seen by an LPC with a “serious mental illness” must also be seen by someone who prescribes medication. But psychologists without prescribing rights were not included.
June
• Mount’s SB 268 passed and was signed.
Also in June
• In a June 13 decision the psychology board reversed their October 2010 opinion #012. With the reversal, medical psychologists without a state psychology license can supervise psychology interns in Louisiana. The reversal came after messages from the Executive Director of the medical board and the president of LAMP wrote to Chair Joe Comaty, MP. The board declined to give the Times the information but later the Executive Director of the medical board provided the letters, noting that they were public documents.
July
• Governor Jindal appointed Dr. Marc Zimmerman, licensed clinical psychologist and medical psychologist, to the psychology board. Dr. Mike Chafetz who had received the majority vote was not appointed.
• A bill that would have merged Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) with the University of New Orleans (UNO) was dropped under heavy opposition. In a follow-up measure, lawmakers approved a proposal to move UNO to the University of Louisiana System.
August
• Dr. Stephen DeMers, Executive Director of the Association for State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), said that there is no other state where individuals practicing psychology are regulated by a medical board. And he said, “Louisiana is playing with fire,” in reference to the supervising of interns by those without a state psychology license. “It [Louisiana] is definitely an outlier.” He pointed out that in the ASPPB model-licensing act the supervisor is to be licensed under the psychology board.
September
• Louisiana psychologists formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) to defend the psychology licensing law from a number of political threats that some believe will come as part of the 2012 Sunset process.
October
• At their October 28, 2011 meeting, members of the psychology board discussed a letter from Dr. Phillip Griffin, President of the Louisiana Psychological Association, concerning an attempt to “open a dialogue” about the regulation of psychology between psychology and medicine.
Also in October
• The Times wrote to the psychology board to ask if the exception, an anticipated lawsuit, that was cited in order to restrict the notes of the discussion with the board’s attorney about Act 251 was still in effect. They said they would study the issue. This followed a requirement that the Times submit “credentials” before the board answered questions.
November
• At its regular meeting in November 2011, the Louisiana Psychological Association Executive Council passed a motion supporting the “reinstatement of the regulation of the psychological aspects of the medical psychologists’ practice under the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists.” Included also were goals to defend the psychology licensing law during the current 2012 Sunset threat to protect psychology’s scope of practice.
December
• LPA President Griffin distributed a letter from the LSBEP in which the Chair Tony Young writes that the psychology board is content with present arrangements about Act 251.
Dr. John Fanning at Senate.
The Times published a special edition about legislative issues in 2011.
In 2011 the Working Group was not able to develop compromise language or plans to meet state mental health needs. This prompted Senator Mount to submit a bill to consolidate both boards.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.