On March 10, 2011, Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, and Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, introduced SB 11-187 – Concerning the continuation of the regulation of mental health professionals, and, in connection therewith, continuing the state boards of psychologist examiners, social work examiners, marriage and family therapist examiners, and licensed professional counselor examiners and the state grievance board, creating the state board of addiction counselor examiners, and implementing the recommendations contained in the sunset review and report of state-regulated mental health professionals. This summary is published here courtesy of the Colorado Bar Association’s e-Legislative Report.

Sunset Process – Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The bill implements the recommendations of the sunset review and report on state-regulated mental health professionals.
The bill continues the boards of psychologist examiners, social work examiners, marriage and family therapist examiners, and licensed professional counselor examiners and the state grievance board, and the regulation of psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, psychotherapists, and addiction counselors through September 1, 2020.

The bill defines terms relevant to the practice of addiction counseling.

The bill creates the state board of addiction counselor examiners to regulate addiction counselors, thereby eliminating the authority of the director of the division of registrations to regulate addiction counselors.

The bill continues indefinitely the ability of the oversight boards to issue a provisional license to a candidate for a mental health professional license or certification if the candidate has satisfied the education requirements for a license or certification but has not yet satisfied the experience requirements. The bill also adds the newly created state board of addiction counselor examiners to the definition of “board”, changes the name of “unlicensed psychotherapists” to “registered psychotherapists” in recognition of the fact that psychotherapists are required to register with, and are regulated by, the state grievance board, repeals unnecessary definitions, and makes other technical modifications to definitions.

The bill creates a registry for marriage and family therapy and licensed professional counselor licensure candidates who are working toward full licensure, consistent with candidate registries currently available for psychologist, social worker, and addiction counselor licensure candidates. The sections also permit the regulatory boards for marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors to administer computer-based examinations to determine an applicant’s competency in the particular practice area.

The bill repeals a duplicate definition of “psychotherapy” to avoid confusion with another broader definition of that term in another provision of the article and repeals the definition of “unlicensed psychotherapist” to comport with the change, per section 7 of the bill, to “registered psychotherapists.”

The bill makes further, conforming changes related to the name change for psychotherapists and allows the state grievance board to administer on-line examinations to psychotherapists applying for registration.

The bill permits the oversight boards for psychologists and social workers to establish computer-based jurisprudence examinations for license, certification, or registration applicants to increase efficiency in the administration of examinations. These sections also contain technical corrections to the statutes as recommended in the sunset report.

The bill amends the statute outlining activities that are prohibited for persons regulated under the act as follows:

• Eliminates the requirement that a person who has been convicted of a felony can be disciplined only if the felony relates to the ability to practice the person’s mental health profession;
• Restates the grounds for discipline regarding use or abuse of alcohol or drugs to eliminate the term “intemperate”;
• Eliminates the ability of a board to discipline a licensee, registrant, or certificate holder simply for having a mental or physical illness or condition that impairs the person’s ability to practice his or her profession and instead allows the applicable board to discipline the licensee, registrant, or certificate holder for failing to notify the board of the limitation, failing to act within the limitations of the illness or condition, or failing to comply with the conditions in a confidential agreement with the board related to the person’s mental or physical illness or condition;
• For purposes of determining whether a person has acted or failed to act in a manner consistent with generally accepted standards of the professional discipline under which the person practices, adds a reference to the standards of practice generally recognized by state and national associations of practitioners in the field of the person’s professional discipline;
• Narrows the prohibition against dual relationships to prohibit a mental health professional from maintaining relationships with clients in cases where the person’s professional judgment was impaired or the person exploited the client;
• Eliminates the requirement that repeated ordering of unnecessary laboratory tests or studies must be willful in order to be grounds for disciplining the person; and
• Adds as a ground for discipline the failure to respond to a complaint.

The bill authorizes the oversight boards to impose an administrative fine on a licensee, registrant, or certificate holder who violates an administrative requirement of the statutes or rules. The boards are required to adopt rules setting up a schedule of fines, and the administrative fines cannot exceed $5,000 per violation.

The bill authorizes the oversight boards to enter into confidential agreements to restrict the practice of a licensee, registrant, or certificate holder who has a mental or physical illness or condition that affects his or her ability to practice the profession with reasonable skill and safety to clients.

The bill modifies the membership on the oversight boards to eliminate one public member on each board and replace that member with a person engaged in or authorized to practice the particular profession. The bill also permits the state board of social work examiners, on its own or at the request of a licensee, to appoint advisory committees to assist with the operations of the board.

The bill modifies the definitions of “practice of psychology”, “practice of licensed professional counseling”, and “practice of addiction counseling”, respectively, to conform to model practice act language adopted by the applicable national professional associations.

The bill adds counseling to the list of permissible practices of a social worker.

The bill recodifies laws pertaining to the licensure and certification of addiction counselors to specify qualifications for licensure as an addiction counselor and certification as either a level I, II, or III certified addiction counselor and the particular activities in which addiction counselors are permitted to engage based on whether the addiction counselor is licensed or has a level I, II, or III certification.
Assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee; the bill is scheduled for committee review on Wednesday, March 23, Upon Adjournment.

Summaries of other featured bills can be found here.