Occupational Licensing Under Fire From Everybody

July 27, 2016Alternative/UnlicensedRobert Plamondon

The Wall Street Journal has come out against the creep of occupational licensing, identifying it as a major cause of economic stagnation. The following is quoted from the July, 26th 2016 Wall Street Journal:

Braids of Liberty: A victory in what should be a nationwide war on occupational licensing

One reason for the slow pace of U.S. job creation is the spreading web of licensing laws that impede the self-employed and small business. So two cheers for Iowa, where state lawmakers have liberated hair-braiders from a requirement to get a state cosmetology license.

As with most such rules, hair braiding laws around the country result from lobbying by beauty-ship owners who want to hobble competitors and state licensing boards that want to retain power. Incredibly, the Iowa law forced women who merely want to help other women braid their hair to spend as much as $22,000 and 2,100 hours in training. Some cosmetology schools don’t even teach hair-braiding, which is a skill often handed down from African-American mothers to daughters. Read More...

Psychologists: If You Know the Right People, You can Do What You Like

July 24, 2016Bullying From Psychology BoardRobert Plamondon

Oregon’s Psychology Board is still trying to give the impression that they actually do their job. On Friday, they issued a press release:

Shelly Kerr, unethical UO psychologist — Shelly Kerr

As is so often the case, they leave out some important facts:

The University is paying Kerr’s fine, so in practice it’s not a fine at all.
Kerr, like all licensed psychologists, is required to take four hours of ethics training anyway, so mandating six hours is meaningless. And all six will no doubt count towards her continuing education requirements, for a net penalty of … zero.

So it’s not even a slap on the wrist.

Deliberate? Or Accidental?

Charles Hill, Director Oregon psychology board — Charles Hill, executive director, OBPE

When dealing with the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners, one should always stop and ask whether anyone knew what they were doing.

There can be no doubt that, in this case, they knew exactly what they were doing: when the fine was reduced from $5,000 to $2,500, it was at the plea of the University (which is actually paying it), not from Kerr.

Even the $5,000 is just a rounding error from the University’s point of view. So far, their expenses include:

An $800,000 out-of-court settlement to the student rape victim whose records were handed over to her attackers’ lawyers by Kerr.
A $425,000 out-of-court settlement to the two counseling center employees who blew the whistle on Kerr.
$200,000 in legal costs.

This is the context in which the Psychology Board decided that a $5,000 fine was too large, so they magnanimously knocked it down to $2,500. Read More...

New Attack on Exempt Practitioners

February 22, 2016Alternative/UnlicensedRobert Plamondon

On Thursday I attended the third meeting of the Licensure Exemption Workgroup, whose purpose is to eliminate the licensing exemption for counselors and family therapists.

The idea is to introduce legislation for this in the 2017 full session of the Oregon Legislature, not the current 2016 short session.

Oddly, this attack on the counseling exemption is not being spearheaded by the counseling board (the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, OBLPCT), but by the psychology board (OBPE).

Why would the psychology board muscle onto another board’s turf? Because that’s what they do.

Rewriting History

The psychology board published a backgrounder on the licensing exemption that strives to explain it without understanding it first. You see, rather than contacting the counselors who are familiar with the counseling exemption, and who know its history, how it works today, its pros and cons, and its supporters and detractors, they chose to study only its legislative history, in isolation, without talking to anybody . This aversion to human contact is typical of the OBPE. Read More...

Communicating with the Psychology Board, or Trying To

February 10, 2016Bullying From Psychology BoardRobert Plamondon

Here’s an email exchange between myself and Charles Hill, the Executive Director of the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners and the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists. I think it speaks for itself.

My email to Hill:

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 15:57:19 -0800

Subject: Licensure exemption workgroup
From: Robert Plamondon <robert@plamondon.com>
To: charles.j.hill@state.or.us

Mr. Hill,

If I were to submit a document, in advance of the meeting, for distribution to the members of the Licensure Exemption Workgroup, would it be distributed?

As you know, I suspect that communications sent to the OBPE are routinely withheld from the board members, and you refused to answer when I asked you about this directly. However, you promptly answered that, if I sent
material to the OBLPCT, it would be distributed.

Which rules are used with the Licensure Exemption Workgroup?

Robert

Hill’s reply to me, which I reproduce in full:

From: Charles J. Hill <Charles.J.Hill@state.or.us> Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 2:03 PM Subject: RE: Licensure exemption workgroup To: Robert Plamondon <robert@plamondon.com> Dear Mr. Plamondon, At this point in time, I am not willing to put any responses to your comments in writing because you have repeatedly twisted, ridiculed and misrepresented things I, or members of OBPE, have said in the past, then published or verbally stated your misinterpretations as fact. This is misleading to the public and I do not wish to support it. I will be more than happy to respond to your questions when I see evidence of accurate reporting on your part. Sincerely, Charles J. Hill Executive Director Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners, (503) 378-4154 x4 Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, (503) 378-5499 x4 Read More...

Department of Justice Puts a Stop to Psychology Board Pettiness

December 18, 2015Bullying From Psychology BoardRobert Plamondon

The Oregon Department of Justice just stopped another act of pettiness by the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners (OBPE), as described by University of Oregon professor Bill Harbaugh in his widely read UO Matters blog. Harbaugh is investigating the Psychology Board’s handling of the UO counseling records scandal, where the Psychology Board plans to deliver a mere slap on the wrist to Shelly Kerr, a licensed psychologist.

Kerr is accused of copying confidential records of a gang-rape victim without the knowledge or consent of the victim or her counselor, and delivering them to the University’s attorneys. For this, the Psychology Board proposes a slap on the wrist.

Where the Board once, for example, gave Christian Wolff a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine for merely abbreviating “Psychologist Associate” to “PsyA,”* they calculate the value of betraying a rape victim at a $5,000 fine, and no suspension.** As you can imagine, this case is receiving a lot of attention. Read More...

Alternative & Unlicensed Practitioners

Operate Legally and Ethically in Oregon