Discussions about value-based care among therapists are often confusing and unproductive. In my experience, that seems to be because a lot of us simply don’t know what the term means. So it gets either dismissed as just a new term for things many of us already do (like measuring outcomes), or it gets framed as the boogeyman intent on destroying therapy as we know it.
Law and ethics
AI therapy is about to make therapy a lot cheaper
“I’m in L.A. We have a lot of therapists,” Angelle Haney Gullett told the Washington Post in 2022. “So it’s just kind of wild to me that that many people are at capacity.” She had contacted 25 different therapists after her father passed away, knowing that she needed help. Even though she was willing to pay cash, not one would take her. No one would even put her on a waiting list.
She’s not alone. Tens of thousands of Americans struggle to access mental health care even when they know they need it, and even when their health insurance covers it. But for clients like Angelle, mental health care is about to get much easier to access. It’s about to get a lot less expensive, too. This will happen thanks to artificial intelligence. AI therapy is already here, and it’s about to upend US mental health care.
The Social Work Compact is bad public policy
The Social Work Compact is an interstate compact, or a form of agreement between individual states. If adopted by enough states, it will allow social workers in participating states to apply for a single, multi-state license that would give them practice privileges in all other participating states. As of January 15, 2024, only Missouri has adopted the compact. Several other states will consider legislation to join the compact this year. They should choose not to do so.
Therapy and coaching: Understanding the differences
It’s not unusual for private practice therapists to seek to expand their practices through coaching. Some clients will engage in coaching, but not therapy, because of the stigma they associate with therapy. At the same time, some therapists note that the unregulated nature of coaching means that anyone can call themselves a “coach,” regardless of qualifications. So “coaching” sometimes carries stigma in the world of licensed therapists.
Setting aside stigma, though, what are the actual differences between coaching and therapy? How different do these practices need to be in order for therapists to engage in both?
CareDash shuts down
CareDash, the “ghost network” where therapist profiles drawn from the NPI database were being used to redirect consumers to online therapy platforms, has shuttered its website. It will dissolve its business, according to the American Psychological Association.