CAFCA Children's Treatment Services Committee Minutes

December 15, 2006

Host: Families First

Present: Rodney Stearns, Timothy Banton & Jedd Hafer (Children’s ARK), Susan Krill-Smith (Synergy), Karen Yarberry (Jefferson Hills), Cheryl Downey (Griffith Centers), Megan Beeman (Beacon Center), Angela Bornemann (Arapahoe House), Terry Roger (Lost & Found), Ann Afton & Jo Blum (Families First), Cathy Fromm (Savio House), Kirk Ward (Mt. St. Vincent Home), Dave Dillingham (El Pueblo. . .An Adolescent Treatment Community), Lourdes Niforos-Lucio (Denver Children’s Home), Mark Mellinger (Beacon Center), Pam Hricik (Shiloh Home), Skip Barber (CAA);  Peg Long (CAFCA).

The meeting was called to order at 10:35 a.m. by Peg Long in the absence of Committee Chair Patty Erjavec.

Welcome & Introductions

Jo Blum welcomed us to their new facility and gave a brief history of 20-year-old Families First and the services offered, which include: a statewide parent support hotline, parenting classes, parent support groups, child care for parents participating in groups and a 10-bed residential treatment program for young children.

DORA Presentation – The handouts from this presentation will be posted on the CAFCA web page (www.cafca.net) under the Members Only section.

Gayle Fidler, Program Director for the Mental Health Boards (direct line: 303 894-7770), and Karen Dechant, Licensing Supervisor (direct line: 303 894-7727), from the Department of Regulatory Agencies (main # 303 894-7800, press “0” immediately to bypass the lengthy message) explained the provisional therapist and regular therapist licensing processes for the various types of mental health therapist categories.  DORA has a staff of 21 and annually issues 21,000 licenses of all types for multiple boards. Although DORA is no longer able to back-date licenses, it has prioritized therapist license applications. Hand delivery of an application does not expedite the process. If an application is complete and the degree was issued by an accredited college or university, the processing time takes a little over 2 weeks. By statute, a provisional license application cannot be processed unless the applicant is an employee of a TRCCF. (The complete bill is available at:  www.dora.state.co.us/mental-health/HB 1395.pdf.)

Several people present cited situations that involved delayed application processing or lack of timely written communication between DORA and the applicant. A major processing holdup is a degree from a non-accredited school. The applicant’s transcript must be reviewed for equivalency purposes, and this may necessitate a request for a course syllabus or course description to determine if the content area requirements have been met. Any blank on the application form is a red flag that a transcript review will be necessary. Employers can check the following websites to determine if the degree-granting school is accredited. The easiest accreditation to determine is the MSW degree.

CACREP (LPC): www.cacrep.org

COAMFTE (Marriage & Family Therapists: www.aamft.org

CSWE (Social Work): www.cswe.org

APA (Psychologists): www.apa.org

It was pointed out that the CDHS Licensing Division may not realize the difference between provisional therapist DORA licensing requirements and licensing requirements to obtain a CDHS TRCCF license. Providers have been told by CDHS licensing staff that a master’s degree in a mental health field is sufficient for DORA provisional licensure status when that is not the case. For example, a masters or doctorate in clinical psychology usually does not contain the courses that are required for issuing a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) license. LPC applicants are scrutinized the closest for course content requirements as there is no corresponding degree program for this status.

Beginning January 1, 2007, an additional $130 (above the current $100 application fee or $230 total fees) will be assessed of LPC applicants due to the extensive nature of the transcript and course review process. The benefit to employers of potential LPC provisional therapists will be that a transcript review may be conducted prior to hiring or issuance of a provisional LPC license. This should help reduce to investment of time and money in an employee who later is found not to meet the LPC provisional licensure requirements. Employers may want to require that potential employees bring the results of the DORA transcript review to the employment interview.  However, DORA will not issue preliminary opinions regarding whether a particular applicant can be licenses due to the background check and other requirements. 

Ms. Fidler emphasized the importance of understanding the DORA Rule 17 requirements for each license. (These were in a handout provided and are also available on the DORA web page: www.dora.state.co.us/mental-health/rtc/information.htm.) It is also critical that the applicant select and submit the correct application for the profession. Ms. Fidler’s entire staff meets weekly for ½ day to conduct transcript reviews in order to determine if all academic content requirements have been met. Furthermore, licensure requires that the master’s degree program be a minimum of 48 credit hours. Thus a 40-hour degree program will not qualify. 

Other caveats are: Supervision requirements for permanent licensure are very license-specific. Employers should not assume that supervised hours for provisional licensure will automatically satisfy the requirements for permanent licensure. Employees and employers should review the permanent licensure requirements for the specific license if permanent licensure may be a goal. Although applicants holding out-of-state licenses may apply for a permanent Colorado license under the endorsement process, such applicants must have held the license for a minimum of 2 years prior and may not have any pending or past disciplinary actions. The provisional license requirements are identical so there is no advantage to going that route.

FFS Billing Data

Only 9 programs responded to the request for FFS billing data. Average daily rates ranged from $167.94 for TRCCF with SO treatment to $12.60 for regular TRCCF. Susannah recorded responses in chart form and can email this to anyone who would like to have it. (Susannah@cafca.net)

Colorado Health Foundation Outcomes Study/Information

Peg asked if anyone had questions about this study and distributed folders containing additional information. If you have questions, please contact Susannah Carroll at 720 570-8402.

Joint CTS-Foster Care Committees Meeting

The CAFCA Foster Care Committee is interested in meeting with CTS Committee members in January to discuss how foster care providers can support TRCCF providers in serving children’s needs. The group expressed interest in devoting a portion of the January CTS meeting to this discussion. Families First can host this joint meeting, which will be January 19^th 10:30-noon. The joint portion of the meeting will occur during the first 45 minutes to one hour of the CTS agenda. It is hoped that this dialogue can be continued on a quarterly basis. Ann Afton confirmed that the space would be available to the Foster Care Committee one hour prior to the joint meeting as well.

Other Business

Monitoring Subcommittee of 1084 Committee Needs Your Input

If you have ANY feedback regarding the 24-Hour Monitoring/Monitoring Without Boundaries process--problems, inconsistencies, suggestions for improving the process, making it more consistent across all divisions of CDHS, clearer to providers, etc., please get your comments to Karen Yarberry, co-chair of the 1084 Committee's Monitoring Sub-committee, NO LATER THAN 5 P.M. ON TUESDAY, 12/19. The Committee will meet next week, possibly for the last time.

Submit written comments to Karen at: kareny@jcmh.org.

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Peg Long