Portability

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Never More Important or Possible

Counseling regulatory boards will determine the future of license portability for counselors. With the recent progress toward a counseling interstate compact, and recent announcements by mental health counseling organizations that have developed portability proposals, creating uniform standards across state lines has never been more important or possible. 


Greater Access for Public

State Counseling Board laws and regulations are aimed at aimed at protecting the public by setting basic standards of qualification, education, training, experience, and professional competence for persons who engage in the practice of these professional services. We recognize that no portability process is a “silver bullet” that resolves all concerns related to portability. However, as proposed in our new plan, licensure portability endorsement and licensure reciprocity to practice across state borders does provide the public for greater access to CMHCs while simultaneously provide for the public safety from unqualified mental health counselors.

As demonstrated by the pandemic, individuals and families need access to mental health services through tele-mental health technology. As CMHCs move from one state to another because of their employment needs or the employment needs of their partners, licensure portability endorsement provides the means for their licenses to be endorsed with minimum administrative burdens to the states and to individual CMHCs who have moved to a new receiving state.


Committed to Licensure Portability

Taking the steps to improve portability will protect the public and add to the strategies through which CMHCs across the country may provide critical services, while at the same time creating a network of states which will honor their licenses that have been earned in other states.

Our hope is that the AMHCA recommendations are reflective of the new landscape of mobile Americans who change their state residence in a way that best meets the needs of state boards. It is our goal to begin a process for the adoption of this plan in specific regions of the country and build momentum for further adoption. Moreover, we remain committed to listening to the wishes and concerns of state boards to ensure true licensure portability becomes a reality.

The AMHCA Board of Directors thanks the AMHCA Interstate Portability Task Force for their vision and time in the development of this position paper on portability and identifying the best features of several portability proposals recently developed.

Past Initiatives