Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill on Tuesday that ensures mental health counselors can continue to diagnose and treat their patients.
This law comes shortly after the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs contemplated changing the wording in some regulations that would “clarify” the scope of practice for licensed professional counselors. The rule change would have meant that licensed professional counselors (LPC) would no longer have been able to diagnose and treat clients clinically.
LARA says state regulations created in 1989 prohibit LPCs from diagnosing patients or using psychotherapy to treat them. Under that interpretation, LPCs have been treating patients illegally for years.
I was proud to sign House Bill 4325, which updates the scope of practice for counselors in the Public Health Code. This law ensures that Licensed Professional Counselors can still diagnose and treat patients so that 150,000 Michiganders can access critical mental health care. pic.twitter.com/fKyf05tHZF
— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) October 29, 2019
The law Whitmer signed on Tuesday would supersede LARA’s proposed wording change and ensure that licensed professional counselors would continue to have the ability to diagnose and treat patients.
“This new law will ensure that more than 150,000 Michiganders can still access critical mental health care,” Whitmer said in a statement. “And it will protect 10,000 professional counselors from losing the ability to practice as they currently do. We must continue to work hard to ensure every Michigander has access to critical mental health care, and this is a step in the right direction.”
The law received pushback from those who say LPCs should not have the power to diagnose.
“Just to be frank, they don’t have the education that is required to make some of these decisions, life or death decisions,” Justin Fisher with the Michigan Psychiatric Society told Michigan Radio. “It possibly puts these patients at risk. If they are misdiagnosed or improperly treated, a million things could happen.”
But others, like the Michigan Mental Health Counselors, fully supported the change, encouraging its members to reach out to Michigan legislators to voice their support for the law.
House Bill 4325 was sponsored by Rep. Aaron Miller (R-59-Sturgis) and passed both chambers of the legislature unanimously.
“What I said on Facebook a few days ago about you guys teaching Lansing, it couldn’t be truer…Showing everybody the importance of mental health care, the importance of LPCs, and the need,” Miller said in a speech to advocates for the new law. “And just saying ‘look we need to keep doing what we’re doing.’”
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with Battleground State News and The Michigan Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
Photo “Gretchen Whitmer Signing Bill” by Gretchen Whitmer.
