
Rep. Gress Introduces First Bill Of Legislative Session
By Daniel Stefanski |
The first piece of legislation in the Arizona House of Representatives for the upcoming 57th Regular Session was introduced by a soon-to-be second-term Republican lawmaker.
Last week, state Representative Matthew Gress announced that he had introduced his chamber’s first bill, stating that “this constituent-inspired legislation will help address the regulatory lag that is disrupting access to mental healthcare professionals.”
An Arizona resident responded to the news, saying, “I absolutely love this. I never knew what an issue mental health could be until I saw some of my friends in the Army struggling with it after encountering horrible things. We lose more vets to mental health issues than combat. Access to care is an issue that must be addressed.”
Not everyone on the X platform was on board with the proposal, however. One account asked, “What is the problem to solve here? This bill problematically gives an out of state counselor who has committed an act that would be cause for discipline, or has had their license revoked, or is under investigation for misconduct – a free pass to work in AZ. Health professions are regulated precisely to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public – no one’s guaranteed a license unconditionally.”
Gress fired back at the detractor of his bill, saying, “Right now, if you go to school to become a social worker, counselor, marriage and family therapist, or addiction counselor, you are required to build clinical hours by having patients. In order to do this, the student must undergo a background check. Here’s the problem: Under the status quo, once someone graduates, that individual must stop working and patients are shown the door. Many patients don’t or can’t find an alternative despite developing a trusting relationship with the therapist who just graduated.”
The Republican lawmaker added, “This is an outdated and unexplainable piece of red tape that inhibits people who’ve gotten their degrees and their experience to start working sooner. HB 2001 is a simple reform. If you’ve completed the hours and work, they count. We need good people and more people going into this field, especially with rising suicide rates and the worst mental health crisis we’ve ever seen.”
Legislators will be officially back in action in just over a month as Arizona returns to its status of a divided government for at least another two years.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.