The Senate Health Committee voted Friday, as it has done before, to table legislation that would bring all mental-health professionals under the regulation of a single licensing board.
Representatives of the National Association of Social Workers and of the Association of V.I. Psychologists testified in opposition to being lumped together with family, school, rehabilitation and addiction counselors for regulation purposes. Psychologists and social workers are now regulated by a licensing board.
Those testifying told the committee that their educational and professional standards far exceed the requirements for other types of counselors. It was also stated that merging the entities under one licensing board would not be cost effective.
Speaking against the proposal were Patricia Rhymer Todman, University of the Virgin Islands psychology professor; Dr. Rita Dudley-Grant, of the Association of V.I. Psychologists; Kimberly Causey-Gomez, president of the V.I. chapter of the National Association of Social Workers; and Jane Christiansen, chair of the Social Work Licensure Board.
According to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Lorraine Berry, the Legislature has found itself "at the center of a turf war." She moved to hold the legislation in committee "until a compromise bill pleasing to both sides" can be drafted.
