Kathleens Public Comments Jan 2025
I’m Kathleen Mills LPC-S and co-creator of AMHP, the Association for Mental Health Professionals.
Our profession is deeply divided right now thanks almost entirely to our academic output of the last twenty years. Competent grad students are leaving and changing their career paths because they don’t want to put up with the abuse they’re taking in their university classrooms and these are not isolated incidents. Our board does not need to be flaming the fires of division with DEI initiatives like the 3 hr Cultural Diversity CE requirement.
Kathleens Public Comments Jan 2025
This requirement was sold to all 4 BHEC Boards by the SHCC Committee as both a competence issue and a workforce shortage band-aid solution. Liberals redefined “Competence” to more closely align with their DEI mindset resulting in an imaginary need for additional training. The profession, the counselors, were then blamed for the perceived workforce shortage owing to the apparent lack of competence in cultural applications. The workforce shortage is about workforce access and has nothing to do with “cultural competence”.
The exact words in the official SHCC report are,
"while the demand for services continues to grow, the need for CULTURALLY COMPETENT services will become more apparent."
It goes on to say, "Policies and rules are needed to REQUIRE continuing education across all types of providers to ensure that this training does not continue to be optional."
And finally, "Mental health professions have not adequately recruited individuals from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds."
Make This Make Sense!
In other words, licensed therapists with masters degrees which included cultural training aren’t competent anymore, we need to require sensitivity training, and the workforce shortage is proof of that.
Last time I looked recruiting was academia’s responsibility; guiding the right people into professions where there was a need for them. When did that become my job? Our job? The entire premise upon which this need was sold to you was an agenda-driven lie.
The Tide is Changing; Get on Board
Since the Jan 20th inauguration of Donald Trump the Federal government is actively purging DEI from academia and every Federal agency and department.
Our state legislature and governor’s offices are actively purging DEI from our universities with the passage of SB 17 which requires the state-run university system to eliminate DEI standards from the hiring process. There’s currently a bill before the legislature to expand that requirement to their curriculums.
It’s obvious that the State and the people who voted in the current legislature want DEI removed from anything under the State’s control, so as I see it this board has two options:
You can wait until the Governor’s office eventually tells you to remove any DEI driven efforts within your rulebook or, take the initiative during this closing act of the Quadrennial Review and eliminate the 3 Hr CE requirement for Cultural Diversity immediately without having to be told.
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About the Author
Kathleen Mills is a fire-breathing, 33+ year veteran of the counseling world. People react in one of two ways when evil touches their lives: some retreat in fear, and some advance without pause to engage it. Kathleen falls firmly in the latter group. She owns and operates Life Tree Counseling in Frisco, TX, possesses a tireless work-ethic, and eagerly awaits your arrival into her growing army of warriors.
