Portantino Bill Addressing Mental Health Provider Shortage Heads to Governor’s Desk
For Immediate Release: August 31, 2022
Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400
Portantino Bill Addressing Mental Health Provider Shortage Heads to Governor’s Desk
Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 1002, a measure authored by State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank) seeks to address the mental health provider shortage. It is headed to the Governor’s desk for signature. SB 1002 would authorize qualified social workers to offer assessment and psychotherapy for mental or behavioral health issues, in order to provide additional resources to injured workers in need of immediate care.
“Mental health needs among workers have increased significantly,” stated Senator Portantino. “However, the number of professionals who are available to provide care have decreased. SB 1002 will enhance our state’s ability to address the mental and behavioral health care needs of California’s workforce by including licensed social in the workers’ compensation provider networks. I look forward to the Governor’s signature on this important health care measure.”
Injured workers must often wait for extensive periods before seeking full psychiatric treatment due to a scarcity of available providers. These delays in health care and evaluation often result in the injured worker’s delayed return to work and increased costs to the system. States such as Texas and New York have mobilized Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) to help fill the gap, but workers’ compensation law in California does not provide for listing of LCSWs in the networks as providers that are permitted to assess, evaluate, and treat mental illness among affected workers.
“Three cheers for Senator Portantino who authored SB 1002, which will increase the availability of mental health care specialists to serve our injured employees,” announced Scott Hauge, President of Small Business California who represents the interests of nearly 5,000 small and micro businesses statewide. “Small businesses are particularly impacted when their employee is injured on the job. Currently, injured employees must wait days, weeks or even months to see a mental health care specialist. SB 1002 will enable injured workers to seek immediate mental and behavioral health care from experts in their scope of practice in treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, as well as the delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy. Small Business California strongly supported SB 1002 and we are excited that this bill is going to the Governor’s desk,” he added.
SB 1002 authorizes qualified LCSWs to provide assessment and psychotherapy to affected workers suffering from mental or behavioral health issues, thereby providing additional and readily available resources within their licensure to injured workers in need of immediate mental health consultation and services.
SB 1002 adds Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) who meet the licensure requirements of the State Board of Behavioral Sciences to the list of available provider types. This will enable the Primary Treating Physician (PTP) to view LCSWs in the list of available mental health providers, thereby allowing the PTP to directly refer an injured worker to a LCSW in the same manner as the PTP may currently refer an injured worker to a psychologist or psychiatrist for work-related mental health services. This bill does not authorize LCSWs to act as a treating physician in the workers’ compensation system – it only authorizes LCSWs to evaluate and treat injured workers only upon referral by a physician.
“AAPAN is pleased to support SB 1002, which will address California’s mental and behavioral health crisis that has further escalated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Julian Roberts, President of the American Association of Payers, Administrators and Networks (AAPAN) who represent the largest workers’ compensation networks in the state. “LCSWs have expertise in assessing and treating the most common mental health conditions experienced by injured workers, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. We are very happy to know that SB 1002 will be heading to the Governor’s desk .”
“The National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter is pleased to support SB 1002,” said Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Government Relations and Political Affairs with the National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter (NASW-CA). Gonzales added, “Injured workers must often wait for extensive time periods before seeking full mental health treatment due to a scarcity of available providers. This delay in mental health care and evaluation often results in the injured worker’s delayed return to work and increased costs to the system. Our workforce of Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) is ready and willing to help provide mental health services in the Worker's Compensation system.”
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