NASW Colorado: NEWS Continuing Comp House Bill 1086

The new law, and the Continuing Competency requirement, does not go into effect until January 2011.

In attendance at the bill signing are the bill sponsors, Rep. Gwyn Greene and Sen. Betty Boyd, and NASWCO Executive Director, Renee Rivera, and Legislative Chair, Jean Greenberg.

Synopsis: A BILL FOR AN ACT CONCERNING CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY OF CERTAIN MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

For more than 10 years, the Chapter and Denver University’s Graduate School of Social Work have been working cooperatively to include a continuing education component in our licensure statute. The Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and the Governor’s office had been opposed to continuing education, citing studies that indicate continuing education does not contribute to public protection, DORA’s primary function. In 2008, however, Governor Ritter asked DORA to consider a competency model that would address learning goals for all professions regulated by DORA from electricians to physicians. In May 2008, Renee Rivera, Executive Director, attended a symposium put on by the Citizen Advocacy Center, a national group working with DORA intended to maintain and improve health providers’ professional competence.

The Chapter’s Legislative Committee and the Practice Standards Committee, GSSW, and the Clinical Society, along with DORA and the LMFT’s, LPC’s and Licensed Addiction Counselors began working together drafting a bill introduced in the Legislature in January 2009. Anne McGihon in the House, and Betty Boyd in the Senate are sponsors of the bill - House Bill 1086. It would require the above-mentioned professionals, exempting psychologists, who chose not to be included, “to maintain continuing professional competency in order to obtain renewal or reinstatement of a license or certificate to practice their respective profession in Colorado.” The statute mandates that the Social Work Board of Examiners at DORA adopt rules that would contain the following elements:

2. Development, execution and documentation of a learning plan based on the assessment

3. Periodic demonstration of knowledge and skills necessary to ensure a minimal ability to safely practice the profession.

The assessment will be a self-assessment, and the periodic demonstration will be a random audit of one’s learning plan at the time of licensure renewal or reinstatement, or if there is a grievance against the licensed clinical social work or licensed social worker. There will be no retesting of the licensed clinical social worker or the licensed social worker as a means of demonstrating one’s competency. What constitutes elements of a plan will be determined by the social work board with stakeholder input. This bill provides a structured avenue by which Mental Health Professionals can document their competency. Continuing competency would NOT be the only way to meet the requirement. Other possibilities include examinations, peer review, consumer satisfaction surveys, evaluations, records review.

If the bill becomes law, it would take effect on January 1, 2011. There would be a slight increase in our licensure fees. The first time increase would be $15.00 that is good for the two years of our license, and from that point on, the increase to our licensure fee would be $10.00.