In a major step forward for the professional counseling profession, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system will soon be opened up to their professionals. Until now, the VA has not been able to hire counselors for mental health professional positions at the same pay grade as clinical social workers, nor can licensed professional counselors apply for supervisory positions open to clinical social workers and others. Now these roadblocks will disappear.

Passage of the legislation — the “Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006,” S. 3421 – follows years of work by American Counseling Association and the American Mental Health Counselors Association to gain recognition of licensed professional counselors within the VA. Although rehabilitation counselors are recognized within the VA, licensed professional counselors have had only a limited role as mental health providers.

The American Counseling Association has over 42,000 professional members who provide counseling and psychotherapy services to hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 6 Jan 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.