If   WE   don't stand up, then who will?

          In fact, a social worker typically has less mental health training than the typical LPC or LMFT.   Most of an MSW's training is in social welfare, administration, community organization, history, philosopy and field experience.   A little bit of training is left over for mental health.

Standards for Counselor Education <--click to see.

          Yet only social workers are allowed to do mental health work in VA hospitals. Only social workers and those with an M.S or MMFT, regardless of coursework on others' transcripts, are allowed to do therapy in family violence programs for the U. S. Army.  

          However, an M.S. or MMFT must have a license if the Army supervisor is not licensed.   An unlicensed social worker can do therapy there, whether the supervisor is licensed or not.

  Blue cross in many states pays social workers for mental health work, but will not pay an LPC or LMFT.

(Medicare page requires Adobe Acrobat)

Medicare pays only social workers and psychologists for mental health services.    Medicaid in many states favors social workers.   An Oklahoma consortium of insurance companies allows 3rd party payments only to social workers. CHAMPUS pays social workers, psychiatric nurses, and LMFT's, but requires that an LPC have a physician's referral.

(CHAMPUS page requires Adobe Acrobat.)

          In Oklahoma, the social work lobby persuaded the governor to veto a bill allowing LMFT's to do family therapy for runaway children, on the ground that "LMFT's were incompetent", according to the governor.  

The social work lobby had told the governor that MSW's have 60 hours of credit, while LMFT's have only 45. They forgot to tell him that most of those 60 hours have nothing to do with therapy, much less, family therapy.

          In the meantime, there has hardly been an organized peep from LPC's or LMFT's about any of this.   Most of our professional associations are not interested in these issues, so we must form our own association to exclusively address this matter, ourselves.   Please add your opinion to this page, by writing to: "lmft @ geocities.com"

          What is needed to correct this situation?   For one thing, FREEDOM OF CHOICE LAWS in each state, can require that a patient can seek treatment from any licensed person, with a similar education and profession, without interference from the insurance ompanies.   This requires organized lobbying, which requires contact and communication of indiviuals who must be allied in order to do this.  

          Another reasonable response is to contact our congresspersons, and senators, in concert, to alert them of the unfairness of government regulations, not only to the practioners, but to the consumer and taxpayer as well.   By limiting the source of mental health services, an artificial inflation of the cost to the taxpayer is created.  

Put the following on your own website!
(A HREF="/hotsprings/3616") THE POLITICAL THERAPIST Against LPC's & LMFT's ! (/a) (p)

Cut and paste, and then substitute angle brackets < > for the parentheses. I used parentheses so the brackets would not be invisible to you here. Just click and drag to mark the lines you want to copy, go to Edit, click copy, and then go to your own webpage.

Let us know you/ve linked, and we'll link to you, too!

To link to the American Counseling Association, use the pattern above, with
(a href="http://www.counseling.org/gr/govaaff.htm")ACA (/a) for the address.

To reduce loading time, the second half of this page has been moved to:

Second Half

Links to other sites on the Web

Medical Advice
Drug Abuse Info
American Counseling Association
Public Service Links
Attempt to Water Down Standards
Thought Field Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing
Contact Your Congressman

Contribute your expression of support at:    

Click Here

(still working on this one.)

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