The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2009

This information was sent by the American Mental Health Counselors Association. Please email or send a letter to your congressional representative and senator regarding the below information:

April____, 2009
The Honorable___________House/Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510RE:

Please Co-Sponsor S. 671/H.R. 1693:

The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2009.

Dear Senator/Representative:

I am writing to strongly urge you to co-sponsor S. 671/H.R. 1693, The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act, which would establish Medicare coverage for licensed professional mental health counselors. With the exception of a recent federal law that finally equalized outpatient co-payments for mental health and medical/surgical services, the baseline Medicare mental health benefit has not been updated in almost 20 years. This inaction has consequences.

Improve Access in Rural Areas and among Underserved Minority Populations:

Approximately 77 million older adults live in 3,000 mental health professional shortage areas. Yet over 50% of rural counties have no practicing psychologists, psychiatrists or social workers. It is shocking to note that fully two thirds of rural residents with mental illness symptoms receive no treatment at all. As a direct result of this lack of access, older Americans with chronic medical conditions and major depression (nearly 2 million senior citizens nationwide) have significantly higher rates of disability than those with either condition alone. Similarly, in a report entitled "Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity," the United State Surgeon General noted that "striking disparities in access, quality and availability of mental health services exist for racial and ethnic minority Americans." A critical result of this disparity is that minority communities bear a disproportionately high burden of disability from untreated or inadequately treated mental disorders.

Making Medicare a Better Purchaser of Mental Health Care:

Inpatient psychiatric hospital utilization by elderly Medicare recipients is extraordinarily high—particularly when compared to psychiatric hospitalization rates for patients covered by Medicaid, VA, TRICARE and private health insurance. To the extent that fully one third of these expensive inpatient placements are caused by clinical depression and addiction disorders, it is strikingly clear that additional community-based mental health services provided by licensed professional mental health counselors will reduce unneeded hospitalizations.

The bottom line is: lack of access to mental health care is increasing both the burden of disability on our senior citizens and minority communities as well as the financial burden on the Medicare program. Please Co-sponsor H.R. 1693/ S. 671.

Sincerely,

Should Mandatory Continuing Education Requirements be reformed?

Attorney Richard S. Leslie, JD, wrote an opinion piece entitled "Mandatory Continuing Education-Does It Work" in the Risk Management section of the April 2009 edition of the Advocate Newsletter (published by the American Mental Health Counselors Association) about whether or not mandatory continuing education requirements for mental health counselors really decrease "the number and severity of disciplinary actions against licensees? (P.10). Attorney Leslie writes that if a study was done by each licensing board in each state, for example in Massachusetts, the results would indicate that the mandate does not decrease the number or severity of cases for disciplinary actions.

In fact, disciplinary actions taken by state licensing boards tend to be true violations of their state laws for example, insurance fraud, sexual relationships with clients, and failure to report child abuse. Attorney Leslie states these illegal acts are not related to a continuing education issue.

Attorney Leslie writes as he spoke to an "renowned expert" (P.10) about changing the system on mandatory continuing education requirements. The suggestion would be for mental health counselors to be tested every five years on specific topics designated by their licensing board. If the counselor fails the exam, his/her license would be reissued. However, the individual would be required to take continuing education training to increase his/her knowledge of a specific topic area that was not passed on the exam.

What do you think? I do not support taking a test every five years to measure certain areas of knowledge by the state licensing board. Taking an exam of this nature, requires many hours of studying that I would find inconvenient and not fun. I rather take the required thirty hours of continuing education units (CEUs) that is mandated by the licensing board every two years in which I can freely choose what trainings to take on my own time. I agree with Attorney Leslie that continuing education may not stop a counselor for committing an alleged illegal act under state laws. No mandated test or continuing education training will prevent a counselor that lacks immoral character from committing a crime.

I recommend that counseling graduate programs implement a mandated course on "Ethics and Professionalism" that will be able to weed out those students who don't belong in the program. Also, employers could implement a mandatory ethics training program once a year during their staff meetings to keep counselors updated and refreshed on new issues that may arise on the job.

Robbin Miller, LMHC
Facilitator
www.therapistsforchange.blogspot.com

A Sad Time for Childrens' Mental Health

In the past few months, several family clinics throughout the state have closed their doors due to not receiving the increase in Mass Health rates to service childrens' mental health needs. As a result, there will be limited services and openings for low income children who need outpatient therapy as well as for medication management. Please note that the Rosie D mandate will fund intensive services for children diagnosed with serious emotional disturbrances(SED). However, those children who are not diagnosed with SED, will have a difficult time finding outpatient therapists and psychiatry for their mental health needs.

What can you do:

Please contact your state legislator at 617-722-2000 to voice your concerns about the lack of adequate reimbursements to fund family counseling centers for children with mental health needs that need outpatient and medication management services.