Public Policy Updates
· The 81st session of the Texas Legislature will convene at noon
on January 13, 2009. Now is the time to get to know the Representative
and Senator who serves your district. To find out who will represent you
go to www.capitol.state.tx.us <http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/> .
· Mark your calendars and plan to attend at least one of the
three Advocacy Days that TCA has scheduled this session. On February
17th, March 25th and May 5th, professional counselors from across Texas
will meet in the Cafeteria at the State Capital and prepare to inform
members of the Texas Legislature about the work they do and the services
they provide to promote mental health in their communities. Advocacy Day
packets include meeting tips, talking points and all you need to have
successful meetings with your Legislative delegation.
· In late December 2006, President Bush signed into law the
Veterans Benefits, Healthcare and Information Technology Act (Public Law
109-61). The law included language establishing explicit recognition of
mental health counselors (LPCs) as mental health providers within health
care programs operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs. This law
will allow the VA to hire LPCs n par with clinical social workers and
will allow counselors to apply for supervisory positions open to
clinical social workers and others. Unfortunately, for a number of
reasons, implementation of this legislation is taking a very long time.
One key issue to be resolved is whether or not a new federal job
description for licensed professional counselors is needed. ACA and
AMHCA are advocating for a new job description that recognizes mental
health counselors as a distinct profession, rather than trying to
squeeze counselors into an existing classification. All counselors are
asked to help advocate for implementation of the VA law. If you have
been prevented from working with veterans or denied a position for which
you are qualified, please contact your federal Congressman or Senator to
describe your experience. Help them to understand the importance of
promptly implementing this law to help ensure that our returning
military personnel have access to quality mental health services from
Licensed Professional Counselors now! To find out who represents you go
to www.capitol.state.tx.us <http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/> .
· The recent election will bring many changes to Washington in
both the legislative and executive branches of government. ACA is laying
the groundwork for success now, and strengthening our grassroots
advocacy support is a major part of this work. We want to educate and
activate as many counselors as possible to work with us! ACA's public
policy office is hosting a roughly hour long conference call on
Thursday, November 20th at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. The teleconference
will focus on the potential effect of the elections on counseling's
federal legislative agenda, and communicating with Congress. Our guest
speaker on the call will be Tim Hysom, Director of Communications and
Technology Services for the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF).
CMF has recently completed intensive research into the dynamics of
public communication with Congressional offices, and Tim will share the
results, implications, and lessons of this research. Anyone who has
called, written, or e-mailed their member of Congress recently, or has
considered doing so, will get something out of the call. All interested
ACA members are encouraged to join in.
Please e-mail Christie Lum at clum@counseling.org
<mailto:clum@counseling.org> before Monday, November 17th to RSVP to
participate in this call. Materials consisting of a PowerPoint
presentation and call-in instructions will be e-mailed to you prior to
the teleconference.
Membership
We are proud to report that as of October 31, 2008, TCA membership has grown to more than 6,100
professional counselors. There are more than 25,000 professional counselors licensed or certified in Texas. If your membership has lapsed, please take a moment to renew
<http://www.txca.org/tca/JOIN-RENEW.asp?SnID=384752384> today. If you have a friend or colleague who is not yet a member, please pass along this update and encourage them to join <http://www.txca.org/tca/JOIN-RENEW.asp?SnID=384752384>
Thank you for all you do for your clients and your students. For more
information, contact jan@txca.org <mailto:jan@txca.org> .
Professional Development
· Close to 2,300 professional counselors from across Texas (and
even Puerto Rico) attended the 52nd Annual Professional Growth
Conference in Houston last week. The conference featured more than 175
workshops, special events, networking opportunities and exciting keynote
speakers. TCA thanks the hundreds of volunteers from the Houston
counseling community - and especially conference coordinators Benny
Malone and Susan Burroughs - for their dedication to making this an
outstanding professional development opportunity for Texas professional
counselors.
· The Secondary School Counselor Conference, cosponsored by the
Texas School Counselor Association and TCA, will be held in Austin from
February 15-17, 2009. You can pre-register
<http://www.txca.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=27> for the low rate of $75
through January 18, 2009. The deadline for the Call for Programs
<http://www.txca.org/Forms.asp?MODE=NEW&Forms_FormTypeID=-37> has been
extended to November 30, 2008. All proposals to present must be
submitted on-line
<http://www.txca.org/Forms.asp?MODE=NEW&Forms_FormTypeID=-37> .
· The Texas Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
will host the 2009 TACES Mid-Winter Conference on January 29-31, 2009 at
the Austin Crowne Plaza Hotel
<http://www.crowneplaza.com/h/d/cp/1/en/hotel/ausgz?&cm_mmc=mdpr-_-googl
emaps-_-cp-_-ausgz&dp=true> . Registration and program information will
be available soon at www.taces.org <http://www.taces.org/> .
Grants & Scholarships
· TCA EEF Grants: December 1, 2008 is the deadline to apply
<http://www.txca.org/tca/EDUCATIONAL_ENDOWMENT_FUND.asp?SnID=384752384>
for a TCA Educational Endowment Fund grant. These professional
development grants of up to $500 are available to members who have
belonged to TCA for at least 12 months prior to application.
· Student Scholarships: YouthLaunch is an Austin-based nonprofit
organization that promotes the empowerment of young people through
service. The YouthLaunch Scholarship for Outstanding Service is a
non-renewable $3,000 scholarship that honors young Texans who lead and
serve in their community and who inspire and activate their peers. In
2009, three scholarships will be awarded to graduating or recently
graduated high school students who have attended high school in the
state of Texas. Scholarship checks will be made out to the college or
university of the recipient's choice and may be applied to any direct
education expense, including tuition and fees, on-campus room and board,
or books and supplies. The deadline for applications is February 28,
2009. Scholarship recipients will be announced no later than April 30,
2009. For more information contact info@youthlaunch.org
<mailto:info@youthlaunch.org> . For the scholarship application go to
http://youthlaunch.org/programs/scholarship.php
<http://youthlaunch.org/programs/scholarship.php>