BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 33|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 33
Author: Correa (D)
Amended: 6/8/09
Vote: 21
SENATE BUSINESS, PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE : 9-0,
4/20/09
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Aanestad, Corbett, Correa, Florez,
Oropeza, Romero, Walters, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 36-0, 5/11/09
AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Ashburn, Benoit, Cogdill,
Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, DeSaulnier, Ducheny,
Dutton, Florez, Hancock, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff,
Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod,
Oropeza, Padilla, Pavley, Romero, Runner, Steinberg,
Strickland, Walters, Wiggins, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Cedillo, Simitian, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 7/9/09 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Marriage and family therapy: licensure and
registration
SOURCE : Board of Behavioral Sciences
CONTINUED
SB 33
Page
2
DIGEST : This bill updates and recasts the educational
curriculum requirements for marriage and family therapists
to require persons who begin graduate study after August 1,
2012, to meet increased total unit requirements, increased
practicum hours for face-to-face counseling, integrates
specified elements, including public mental health
practices, throughout the curriculum, repeals current
marriage and family therapist educational requirements on
January 1, 2019, revises requirements for applicants
licensed or educated outside of California, and makes
technical and conforming changes.
Assembly Amendments added language related to elder adults
to clarify that this population is included in the
curriculum requirements for marriage and family therapists
(MFTs). In addition, the amendment added language to allow
MFT interns to gain unlimited supervision via
videoconferencing, and made other technical changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Provides for the licensing and regulation of more than
28,000 marriage and family therapists (MFTs), 10,000 MFT
interns, 1,700 licensed educational psychologists,
16,000 licensed clinical social workers, and 7,200
associate social workers by the Board of Behavioral
Sciences (Board) within the Department of Consumer
Affairs.
2. Specifies certain educational requirements necessary to
obtain an MFT license.
3. Requires each applicant, prior to making application for
the licensing examination, to complete specific
supervised experience requirements.
4. Establishes certain requirements for persons who
obtained education or experience outside of California.
This bill:
1. Recasts the required curriculum to obtain an MFT license
SB 33
Page
3
for persons who begin graduate study after August 1,
2012, and makes various changes including:
A. Increases the graduate degree's total unit
requirement from 48 to 60 semester units (72 to 90
quarter units).
B. Specifies fewer requirements for specific hours or
units for particular coursework within the curriculum
requirements, thereby allowing for flexibility and
innovation in curriculum design.
C. Revises the required practicum to:
(1) Increase the face-to-face counseling hours
from 150 to 225 hours, and provide that 75 of
those hours may be gained performing client
centered advocacy, as defined.
(2) Require training in the applied use of
theory and psychotherapeutic techniques, working
with families, adults (including elder adults),
documentation skills, and how to find and use
resources.
D. Recasts certain coursework requirements, such as
California law and ethics and child abuse assessment
and reporting, which are currently required prior to
licensure (and permitted to be taken outside of the
degree program) to instead be completed within the
degree program and thus, prior to registration as an
intern.
E. Requires various elements to be integrated
throughout the curriculum, including:
(1) Recovery oriented care and related methods
of service delivery.
(2) Greater emphasis on understanding various
cultures.
(3) Greater understanding of the impact of
socioeconomic position.
SB 33
Page
4
(4) Provide students the opportunity to meet
with consumers and family members.
F. Adds instruction in areas needed for practice in a
public mental health environment which may be
provided in credit level coursework or through
extension programs, including the following:
(1) Case management.
(2) Working with the severely mentally ill.
(3) Collaborative treatment.
(4) Disaster and trauma response.
G. Requires degree program content to include
instruction in:
(1) Evidence based practices.
(2) End of life and grief.
(3) Behavioral addiction, substance abuse,
co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders.
(4) Human sexuality and psychosexual
dysfunction.
(5) Differences in legal and ethical standards
for different types of work settings.
(6) Licensing law and licensing process.
2. Repeals the current MFT educational requirements January
1, 2019.
3. Revises the requirements for persons who earned a degree
outside of California effective January 1, 2014,
including accepting education as substantially
equivalent that meets the following:
A. The degree meets the following minimum
SB 33
Page
5
requirements:
(1) 48 semester units (72 quarter units).
(2) Six semester units of practicum (nine
quarter units).
(3) 150 hours in practicum providing
face-to-face counseling.
(4) 12 semester units (18 quarter units) of
marriage, family, and child counseling and related
approaches to treatment.
B. The applicant must remediate any deficiencies in
content and units.
C. The applicant completes credit level coursework in
the following areas:
(1) Recovery oriented care.
(2) Understanding various California cultures
and the social and psychological implications of
socioeconomic position.
(3) Structured meetings with consumers and
family members.
(4) Behavioral addiction.
(5) Co-occurring mental health and substance
abuse disorders.
(6) California law and ethics.
4. Effective January 1, 2014, no longer requires an
applicant licensed as an MFT for less than two years in
another state to complete 250 hours of experience in
California as an intern prior to applying for licensure.
5. Permits applicants for an MFT license to count
experience for performing "client centered advocacy"
activities toward licensure.
SB 33
Page
6
6. Permits MFT interns to gain a portion of the required
supervision via teleconferencing.
7. Requires applicants for MFT licensure to verify that
supervised experience was gained as an employee or
volunteer and not as an independent contractor.
8. Makes conforming and clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/9/09)
Board of Behavioral Sciences (source)
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy,
California Division
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
California Coalition for Counselor Licensure
California Communities United Institute
California Southern University
Education Management Corporation
University of Phoenix
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/9/09)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) Local 2620, AFL-CIO
Capitol Resource Family Impact
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : This bill is sponsored by the
Board of Behavioral Sciences who states that MFT
educational requirements have not been substantively
changed since 1988. However, the practice has evolved over
the past 20 years, and the Board states that there is a
growing body of evidenced-based and best-practices in
treatment. Employment opportunities are increasing for
MFTs and work settings are shifting from private practice
to the public sector according to the Board.
The Board further states that the voter-approved California
Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63) enacted in
2004, is transforming mental health services in California
SB 33
Page
7
in a number of ways. This includes placing greater
attention on serious mental illness, reducing adverse
impacts resulting from untreated mental illness, expanding
successful innovative services, emphasizing culturally and
linguistically competent approaches, and involving people
with mental illness in the system as stakeholders with an
equal voice. These new services are guided by a promise to
do "whatever it takes" to help people fully recover from
mental illness, and are typically referred to as "recovery
oriented care." The Board indicates that this
transformation demands that those employed in public mental
health, including MFTs, must have a different perspective
and be able to provide different approaches to treatment.
The proposed changes to the educational requirements make
it necessary that the Board's requirements for applicants
who completed their education outside of California also
change for consistency with those new requirements.
According to the Board, permitting applicants to count
experience for performing client centered advocacy is
important because this is a central part of practice in
public settings and helps the practitioner provide recovery
oriented care.
The Board believes that permitting a portion of the
required supervision to take place via teleconferencing is
important for persons who are practicing in a rural area,
who may not have constant access to a supervisor, and for
persons who are practicing in a specialty area who may not
have access to a supervisor who is an expert in that area.
The Board points out a flaw in the current law which
currently prohibits MFT interns and trainees from working
as independent contractors but has no way to verify that it
is not occurring. Requiring the applicant to verify
employment or service as a volunteer will provide the Board
with this verification and will help to protect interns and
trainees from unlawful employment practices.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Capitol Resource Family Impact
argues that requiring MFT students to study "multicultural
development and cross-cultural interaction" is unnecessary
for becoming an effective and empathetic counselor.
Cultural training required simply to counsel people about
SB 33
Page
8
their marriages or families is too ambiguous and is
unnecessary in many situations, according to Capitol
Resource Family Impact, who also states: "Furthermore, it
is not the legislature's [sic] place to determine the
curriculum of private graduate institutions. By requiring
licensed therapists to take certain courses, this law
effectively controls their curriculum."
AFSCME Local 2620 states in opposition: "[W]hile we
support MFTs improving their education and training
requirements, the requirements as spelled out in SB 33 do
not support marriage and family treatment, but more closely
resemble those of Social Workers and Psychologists. The
MFT license was instituted to specifically train therapists
in the treatment of family and relationship issues and the
integrity of this purpose should be maintained. This is an
important function that MFTs provide and an essential piece
to the overall functioning of the community. This function
should not be diluted to providing treatment that can and
should be provided by Social Workers and Psychologists.
AFSCME Local 2620 support MFTs adding courses to their
curriculum related to multiculturalism and socioeconomic
impact of treatment if those courses clearly specify their
relationship to marriage and family treatment. Since SB 33
does not specify this, we fear that rather that [sic]
providing the community with well trained MFTs, it would
result in poorly trained Social Workers."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Carter, Chesbro, Conway,
Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore,
Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes,
Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore,
Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal,
Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen,
John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra
Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran,
Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Charles Calderon, Duvall, Jones,
SB 33
Page
9
Krekorian, Nava, Vacancy
JJA:mw 7/10/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****