How do mental health professionals practice across state lines and keep up client care?

With the arrival of PSYPACT (woo!), and the crisis of the pandemic, we are all thinking about cross-state practice and how to best navigate practicing across state lines while keeping up client care.

In this Facebook Live, Roy talks about the key points of cross-state practice and what current events mean for both psychologists and other mental health professionals alike.

Watch the Facebook Live Here

Summary

This is one of the silver linings of the pandemic- teletherapy is everywhere. As a result of the quarantine, teletherapy is completely normalized. Whether you are back to face-to-face sessions, or not yet, teletherapy won’t be going anywhere.

• Make sure your teletherapy setup is comfortable and sustainable
• Get clients used to setting up their own space to be the best it can be for teletherapy
• Get a little deeper into understanding research and techniques for effective teletherapy delivery

Teletherapy is here to stay

As we shift from emergency mode and lean into teletherapy and supporting you in the next stage of teletherapy, the discounts will end for both our individual telemental health program and the group practice telemental health program. We are moving to better support you through this time as we settle into teletherapy for the long haul- so if you have been considering purchasing our programs, be sure to do so before the end of the month when those discounts will expire.

2020 Update on CE Course for Cross-State Practice

We are hosting a live event update to our CE course Legally Practicing Across Borders: Interstate and International Mental Health Practice, During and Post-COVID. This will cover both international and interstate information and will be a full 90 minutes.

PSYPACT is here

Psypact is the agreement between certain states to allow approved psychologists to practice within the scope of practice of psychologists to practice anywhere in those states. This is quite a feat of compromise and coordination. Up to 31 states and territories are currently pending to be a part of PSYPACT.

What about those of us who aren’t psychologists?

Diversity of professional identity, grassroots development, and diverse standards of care are significant barriers to developing unity between state licensure.

Good news, many states are still allowing for temporary practice across state lines. Part of this is the COVID-19 emergency which we anticipate remaining– but there are also the lesser-known evergreen notices from states that typically allow professionals from out of state to provide care within the state.

There are tools and techniques to help you know if you can provide care when our clients are on vacation in a different state. Teletherapy is completely normalized and will help us make agreements of shared bureaucracy easier. These trailblazing actions of PSYPACT make it easier and more normalized for other professionals to do something similar in the future.

How PCT is here to support you right now

• Telemental Health Programs (Solo Certificates for private practices | Group Practice Certificate Program)
• Office Hours – weekly live consultations (free with a telemental health program or a la carte)
• Upcoming Live CE Event (free with a telemental health program or a la carte)
• 50 State Lookup Tool for Cross-State Practice Allowance