Call today! 540-500-1569
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
We Help Mental Health Professionals
Mental health professionals are vital to the health of our nation. You’ve worked hard for many years and tested to get your license. You are required to follow strict practice standards and take continuing education requirements to keep and renew your counseling license..
When a patient, colleague, or employer complains on you to the Board, you must not ignore it. If you’re found to have violated a professional law or regulation, your ability to work as a mental health professional may be in danger, so you want to do everything you can to defend yourself against the complaint in front of the Virginia Board of Counseling.
The Virginia Board of Counseling is made up of a 12-member Board, a Regulatory Board, an Advisory Board on Art Therapy, and administrative, enforcement, licensing, and support staff.
The Board has its own procedures for reviewing, investigating, and resolving formal complaints made against mental health professionals. The complaint process is complicated and you need a professional to help you get though the process because your professional and personal reputation is at risk along with your ability to support your family.
Given the seriousness of this matter, bringing on an experienced professional license defense attorney who can help you understand the process and come up with a solid defense. Tori Bramble of LicenseSure Professional License Defense can help. She has years of experience helping health care professionals defend themselves when complaints are filed against them. She can do the same for you.
Type of Conduct Regulated in Virginia
Virginia has laws, rules and regulations that apply to licensed mental health professionals. Usually, license-threatening complaints made against a counselor can include:
-
Fraud: this is charging for counseling work that wasn’t provided to a client or falsely stating the work performed.
-
Sexual misconduct: having sexual contact with a client.
-
Alcohol or drug abuse: abusing alcohol or drugs in a way that negatively affects the counselor's ability to serve clients.
-
Mismanagement of Records: not properly maintaining treatment notes, or HIPAA violations.
The above is not a list of every possible violation.
The Typical Discipline Process
Once a complaint is filed with the Virginia Board of Counseling, an intake person will review it to ensure it’s the type of complaint that the Board has the jurisdiction to discipline a licensee for.
If the complaint does meet the Board's standards, the typical process is as follows:
• Investigation. The Board will start an investigation into the allegations made against the mental health counselor. They usually interview the complainant, counseler, and any others with knowledge of the allegations in the complaint.
• Dismissing or Filing of Charges. If the Board of Counseling’s investigation finds there isn’t enough information to take more action against a licensee, it can close or dismiss the complaint. But if the facts of the complaint justify more investigation, the Board will dig deeper to see if it can charge a counselor with specific violations of Virginia law or practice requirements.
• Agreed Discipline. In some cases, the Board may allow a counselor to enter into a consent agreement. This is where the Board will prpose that the counselor agree that to their narrative about what happened and that the counselor violated a law or regulattions, and the state will then hand down a penalty to the counselor. Once this is done, the dicisplinary proceedings usually end.
• Formal Disciplinary Hearing. When a complaint can’t be resolved by agreement, a formal hearing occurs where documents, witness affidavits, and witness testimony can be introduced before the Virginia Board of Counseling.
Penalties
There is typically a wide range of possible punishments that can come out of the disciplinary process. Possible outcomes are a dismissal, monetary penalties, reprimand, probation, completion of a substance abuse program, or other license restriction. The worst-case scenario would be a license revocation which rarely happens.
Contact Tori Bramble and the Licensure Professional License Defense Team
If you’re a licensed mental health professional and know that a formal complaint has been filed against you with the Virginia Board of Counseling - contact Tori Bramble and the LicenseSure Professional License Defense Team today.
She has helped other healthcare professionals, including mental health professionals, defend themselves in disciplinary investigations. She will help you understand the charges filed against you; investigate your case, and negotiate with the Board. If required, she will appear ready and able to fight for you at the hearing to defend your mental health counseling license.
If you're in this situation, don't delay – call Attorney Tori Bramble and the LicenseSure Professional License Defense Team today at ______________or by using our online contact form. We’re here to listen and help you.