Vermont considers mental health licensure reform

New recommendations from Vermont’s Office of Professional Regulation’s (OPR) aim to streamline licensing for the state’s mental health professions.
A new report from the OPR suggests expanding the scope of Vermont’s Board of Allied Mental Health (BAMH) to oversee all new mental health credentials and include all current advisor mental health professions, such as social work, alcohol & drug abuse counseling, applied behavior analysis, and psychoanalysis.
In addition to creating a larger pool of licensed mental health providers for patients, the changes could mean more consistent entry qualification standards across the disciplines, and a simpler path for professional conduct enforcement.
The OPR conducted research over an 18-month period...