Consultations have begun to regulate thousands of mental-health counsellors practising in B.C. to ensure basic standards for education, licensing and professionalism.
Colleges establish educational requirements, ensure registered members are qualified, competent and follow standards of practice and ethics, and oversee a complaint process that includes posting of disciplinary notices online so people know who is in violation of the rules. B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau introduced a private member’s bill in June 2021 to amend the Health Professions Act to compel the minister to regulate professions when in the public interest.
Currently, there’s nothing to show that many of these addictions-centre therapists run evidenced-based programs and there’s no requirement that treatment data be submitted to the government for evaluation, said Furstenau.