Legislative and Public Policy Committee

Meeting Minutes

7/6/2020, 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm

Members Present:

Jordan Briggs, LCMHC

Sarah Jensen, ACMHC

Anna Leiber, LCMHC

Anne Farley, Student

Members absent:

Gray Otis, LCMHC

Jennifer Zeuschner, LCMHC

Business Items:

• 1.     Discussed changes to website

- Operating procedures - Jordan will outline standard operating procedures for reaching out to legislators and any other necessary areas. We will review this in a future meeting for approval from the committee.

- Reaching out to legislators, going to lunch, meetings, etc. - Anne, Jordan, and Sarah will begin reaching out to legislators on the Health and Human Services Committee. Anne will be preparing a template to send out to all Davis, Box Elder, Weber, and Salt Lake County members of the committee. After the template is sent out we will follow up with those we get responses from and potentially invite them to a committee meeting.

- Laws related to particular areas - Sarah recommended that the website include interest areas and legislation or advocacy opportunities in those areas for interested people. This will be put on the list of website changes to make over time, including putting easily digestible information on DOPL laws and licensure on there. 

        

• 2.     Mission statement - Reviewed Gray's recommendations for changes to the mission statement and agreed that the changes make sense. The new mission statement will be posted on our website. It is below:

The mission of the Utah Mental Health Counselors Association, Legislative and Public Policy Committee is to actively pursue the laws and regulations that have an impact on the clinical mental health profession and on clients seeking mental health treatment. Our goal is to ensure that Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors (LCMHC's) in Utah are equally recognized as licensed mental health professionals to change public policy, as needed, to provide equal rights and opportunities for LCMHC's in Utah, and to protect the rights and welfare of the clients we serve. Our efforts are focused on creating professional relationships between public policymakers, other mental health professionals, and the general population. We also focus on establishing ourselves as community leaders and advocates for both mental health professionals and clients.

• 3.     Reaching out to legislators, outline:

- Email a standard template to reach out; invite those that respond to a committee meeting, have them explain what they do for the Health and Human Services Committee and their interests; determine who would be most beneficial for us to be connected with.

- Provide them some resources for mental health issues or social justice issues; help with education.

- Davis, Box Elder, Salt Lake County, Weber

- Template email – Focus on fostering relationships and ways we can be supportive at this time; introduce UMHCA and discuss what bills/changes have impacted us recently (increasing licensure portability, SB 68), working with the BHWW. Thank them for their efforts, explain our role as UMHCA.

• 4.     Lobbyist 

- Anna mentioned that at the AMHCA conference several LPP committees had paid for a lobbyist to help connect with policymakers. Anna will forward the powerpoint and resources from the presentation to review. This would be a great option to look into down the road if needed, if something like SB 68 blows up again. 

Additional Notes:

• 1.     DOPL Board Meeting this Wednesday (7/8/2020) – Jordan and Anna will be in attendance via phone.
• 2.     Next meeting: TBD