BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1907
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Date of Hearing: March 21, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Noreen Evans, Chair
AB 1907 (Lieu) - As Introduced: January 26, 2006
SUBJECT : Office of Child Abuse Prevention: multidisciplinary
personnel.
SUMMARY : This bill clarifies the definition of
multidisciplinary personnel to include marriage and family
therapists.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes the Office of Child Abuse Prevention, within the
Department of Social Services, to plan, improve, develop, and
carry out programs and activities relating to the prevention,
identification and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
2)Directs the Office of Child Abuse Prevention to manage state
and federal contracts in the funding of local efforts to
prevent, intervene or treat child abuse and neglect, and to
make recommendations concerning the application for federal
funds.
3)Defines "multidisciplinary personnel" to mean any team of
three or more persons who are trained in the prevention,
identification and treatment of child abuse and neglect cases
and who are qualified to provide a broad range of services
related to child abuse. The team may include, but not be
limited to, psychiatrists, psychologists or other trained
counseling personnel.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : The Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP)
administers state and federal grants directed toward the
prevention, intervention, or treatment of child abuse and
neglect. In this role, OCAP funds and coordinates local
services directed toward children and families at risk of abuse
and neglect. Services provided by local non-profit agencies,
such as women's shelters, parent training classes, family
counseling, or drug counseling often receive some or all of
their funding through state and federal grants administered by
AB 1907
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OCAP.
Local services funded through OCAP must generally have the
support of a public agency, like the board of supervisors,
county health, mental health, or welfare agencies, or local law
enforcement. These services must also be broadly supported by
the community, non-duplicative, and meet the real needs of
children in the community. As long as local programs meet these
basic requirements, they can take on a wide variety of forms,
ranging from in-home respite, teaching home making skills, or
the use of multidisciplinary teams to offer comprehensive
planning and coordinating of services for children and families.
Multidisciplinary teams are composed of different professionals
who bring a variety of skills to bear on the task of serving
children and families in a coordinated fashion. The definition
of who can serve on multidisciplinary teams includes, but is not
limited to, "Psychiatrists, psychologists, or other trained
counseling personnel". This bill would clarify this definition
by listing marriage and family therapists along with
psychiatrists and psychologists.
The author states that this would correct a problem by removing
vagueness from the definition. The author notes that marriage
and family therapists have specific training in the dynamics of
family life, and that their involvement can be invaluable in
preventing abuse. While this is certainly true, the phrase
"other trained counseling personnel" could be read to include
marriage and family therapists. The author has not provided
examples of situations in which a therapist has been excluded
from a multidisciplinary team.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
(Sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : John Boisa / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089