Public policy Archives - Page 3 of 14

Write a letter to the editor: Drop the ASWB exams

March 22, 2024March 22, 2024 by Ben Caldwell

Some problems can have large impacts, and still go unnoticed by the public and policymakers. ASWB’s racist exams for social work licensure are a great example. When people learn of the problems with social work exams, they tend to be rightly horrified. But most people don’t know about the problem.

A letter to the editor of your local newspaper can be a great way to raise awareness of this issue, especially in states actively considering alternate pathways to licensure. Here’s a quick guide to writing one.

Why there isn’t an interstate compact for MFTs

June 26, 2023April 12, 2023 by Ben Caldwell

Telehealth-based mental health care is now the norm. Many clinicians have sought to expand their telehealth practices by getting licensed in multiple states. Psychology, counseling, and social work have all pursued interstate compacts to expand telehealth opportunities for professionals in participating states. This has led many marriage and family therapists to wonder: Why isn’t there an interstate compact for MFTs?

The mental health workforce shortage solution is right there

April 8, 2023February 14, 2023 by Ben Caldwell

There is a severe mental health workforce shortage in the US. You have heard this time and time again. In a time of unprecedented demand for mental health care – and deaths from lack of it – we simply don’t have enough therapists. And the therapists we do have aren’t representative of the communities they serve.

The solutions proposed for this problem so far are trivial. But there is a readily available solution to the mental health workforce shortage. It could immediately grow the field by thousands of qualified practitioners. It would dramatically improve diversity within the field at the same time. Even better, it would cost states virtually nothing to implement, and could be done in a week.

The ASWB Clinical Exam reckoning has begun

February 7, 2023 by Ben Caldwell

This week, legislators in Maryland introduced a pair of bills (SB0871, SB0872) to let clinical social workers get licensed without first taking the ASWB Clinical Exam. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow. The current social work exams, like all clinical exams in mental health care, simply don’t work. Worse, they fail in remarkably biased ways. Professionals, the policymakers, and the public are all catching on to the sham.

CareDash shuts down

February 3, 2023 by Ben Caldwell

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.