Group 3: Kimberly Frye, Kadie Hunt, Zach Small


Comments

  1. I appreciate the multifaceted approach your group took on addressing ways that people of various backgrounds do not have equal access to mental health care, and how bills can either improve or worsen that issue. I also found it interesting that one can advocate by writing to medical schools to add mental health to their core curriculum. I had not realized that it is not standardized in that field, which is very disheartening. I think that goes to show how health is not viewed as holistically as it should be, the medical model often focusing on fixing physical illness as opposed to promoting mental well-being. ---Michelle Urquhart

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    1. I agree Michelle. I too was surprised that mental health education is not a required part of medical schools' core curriculum. From what we found, it varies at best.

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  2. I like how your group decided to focus on advocacy overall and presented multiple bills to advocate for and against. It is a little confusing since some of your bills are specific to Texas, while others are specific to other states (I believe the SB88 you're referring to is specific to South Dakota, not a national Senate bill). Maybe specifying the relevant state or separating the bills by state would be helpful. However, I really like the layout of the poster and the inclusion of graphics. Good job! ---Audrey Doidge

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    1. Thank you for your feedback Audrey. We chose to address bills in and out of Texas to widen our reach, so I can understand the confusion. Specifying the state relevant to specific bills would help clarify for our readers.

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  3. I really liked your approach! I agree with Audrey that it would be helpful to indicate which bills you listed are state bills vs. national legislation. (The fact that conversion therapy is recognized as a legitimate therapeutic approach in Texas is so disheartening, while also very galvanizing to advocate for that change.) ---Rebecca Baughman

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    1. Thank you for the feedback Rebecca. I appreciate your response. Yes, it is saddening that Texas, as well as many other states, continues to allow the unethical practice of conversion therapy. The Texas specific bill HB 517 would penalize mental health providers practicing conversion therapy on minors, but it has been left pending in committee since May 2019. Hopefully, Texas and other states will soon follow suit with the many states banning conversion therapy altogether. Our committed advocacy can only hasten that change.

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  4. I like that you added links to the advocacy suggestions to make them easily accessible. I noticed that one of your ways to advocate was to write to medical schools and ask that they add the importance mental health practices to their curriculum. This shocked me because I thought med schools were already including mental health in their programs. ---Jessica Pinder

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    1. From what we found, the level of mental health education in medical schools varies. However, if medical programs required mental health intervention training as a part of their curriculum, then physicians would be better trained in identifying mental health issues, possibly referring those people to mental health providers rather than solely relying on medication.

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  5. You have offered a wealth of information and I've learned so much! In particular, I was unaware that conversion therapy was still legal in Texas. Is there any current legislation trying to address that? ---
    Alexandra Vriend

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    1. Sadly, there are many states that conversion or reparative therapy is legal, including Texas. The most recent bill I have found to counter this specifically in Texas is HB 517. This bill provides penalties for mental health providers who attempt to change the sexual orientation of a child. However, it has been left pending in committee since May 2019. On a national scale, the Equality Act is trying to be passed; this would prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ members in a multitude of settings. I believe counseling would fall under this act, which I would hope would deter, if not ban, conversion therapy practices.

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  6. It was really interesting that your group chose to use several policies that you were advocating for and against. I thought that it was actually more helpful that you used several policies because as viewers, we are able to get a good understanding of which policies fall in line with our beliefs and which do not. ---Unknown User

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  7. I love how your group advocated for many different bills that are all centered around the same topic. It is crazy to me that Texas still allows conversion therapy to happen even though it is known that it does not work. Also the SB88 bill astonishes me. It goes against so many ethical codes it is crazy. All these different bills make me wonder if they even take in to account ethical considerations when producing them. ---Unknown User

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    1. Hello "Unknown User",

      Thank you for your comments! I was also unaware that Texas allowed conversion therapy before the start of this project. It simply does not make sense. From the looks of it, it seems like these people completely ignore the ethical considerations before making these bills! It makes it so much more important for people to advocate for client rights.

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  8. There is so much great information here! You all really did your homework and made a lot of great points here. I also loved that you showed the difference between bills that would be helpful versus those that could harm potential clients. I am also a visual learner so the pie charts and graphs helped me fully understand the situation, which I appreciated. I did not fully understand the bleak situation some of the bills are trying to create. Hopefully, we can make a difference on if they pass or not. ---Madison Berley

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    1. Hi Madison,

      Thank you for your comments! I agree that it is both incomprehensible and unfortunate that there are bills being created that would cause more harm than good. This is why it is especially important for us, as counselors (in training), to advocate on behalf of these issues and stay up-to-date. It also shows how easy client rights to ethical services can basically be taken away if we do not intervene. I, too, hope we can make a difference.

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  9. I really appreciate the inclusion of multiple bills and how they are all related to the rights of individuals. The poster is very informative and the graphics are very helpful. I did find it slightly confusing that the bills were not separated by state and national, since there was the inclusion of SD, TX, and national bills. I found it interesting that you included writing to medical school to advocate for mental health curriculum, that's something I wouldn't have thought of and it's very necessary for health professionals to receive training in mental health issues.

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    1. Hi Sara,

      Thank you for your comments! I can see how the bills not being separated by state and national level may have caused confusion, however, the main purpose for their inclusion was to illuminate the various ways in which individuals' rights may be affected due to gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, etc. We believe it is important to protect clients' rights at all costs and I hope the ACA ethical codes we listed can further explain why these issues are important regardless of state bills or national bills. Additionally, as we are also advocating to the public, it can be a more straightforward approach to inform the public of which bills to vote 'yes' or 'no'. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I hope this was able to clear some of the confusion!

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  10. I'm passionate on the idea of education for all mentality and was super glad to see y'all's group chose an advocation topic involving such idea. As I read through the poster I saw it was more involving rights for all individuals with various bills. What I thought was interesting about this topic is the inclusion of the S943 bill talking about Grants to higher education in relation to minority groups, including single parents and transfer students, which are two populations typically overlooked demographic wise at Universities. Those populations are something I would have not considered within the bill and I'm appreciative it was brought to my attention. -Hannah Kearns

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    1. Hi Hannah,

      Thank you for your comments! Our goal was to add various bills that covered our policy since it was so broad. I am glad you mentioned S943. I also appreciated that this bill was so inclusive of the various populations that even I have overlooked. I am glad that we were able to provide you with new information. There is so much out there that we can advocate for.

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  11. I really like the layout of this poster. It's very organized and informative while catching my eye. I also really liked how there were multiple bills on this poster since there was a focus on protecting the rights of individuals. There were a lot of bills that I was unaware of and having them on a "yay or nay" type of style really caught my attention. It actually made me want to do more digging into these bills! As for the advocacy part, I found it so interesting that you could write to medical schools as well as to a Research Committee. It was something that had never crossed my mine. Thank you guys for such an informative poster. --Theresa Tran

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    1. Hi Theresa,

      Thank you for your comments! I am glad we were able to provide you with new information!

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  12. I love the layout of your poster, and how you included visual representations in the forms of charts and graphs. The information provided demonstrates the urgency of protecting the confidentiality and mental health of various groups, yet the disheartening reality of bills SB88 and SB93, that would promote conversion therapy, and a violation of confidentiality to the LGBTQ+ population. I would be curious to know the standing of these bills, and am encouraged that there are so many bills opposing these damaging ideals and posing threat to vulnerable populations. I was not aware of much of the information provided in this poster, such as conversion therapy still being practiced in Texas, and appreciate the pertinent information and issues brought forth in this poster. -Anna Ruddat

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    1. Hi Anna,

      Thank you for your comments! I am glad we were able to provide you with new information. Although SB88 has been withdrawn, the foundation of the bill HB1057 and correlating bill SB93 have been passed as of February of this year. The bill for eliminating conversion therapy in Texas, HB 517, is currently pending. These bills are absolutely disheartening, so it is important that we advocate to get them out.

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  13. This was a super informative poster! I really loved how you not only provided bills we should advocate, but also bills that we should vote against. I was surprised that bills like the SB88 and SB93 are in existence in this day and age. It just goes to show that even though society seems to be moving forward in a more positive direction when it comes to issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community, there is still so much negativity. I appreciate you touching upon different groups that are still greatly disadvantaged in society and our need to be aware of this and support them as counselors. Thank you for this insightful poster and for increasing my awareness. -Jennifer Kim

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    1. Hi Jennifer
      Thank you for your comments. It is sad that the LGBTQ+ community is still being subjected to this type of treatment. Unfortunately, the medical and insurance communities are traditionally very slow to adopt change and many issues that the LGBTQ+ community have to deal with have only recently started to come to the forefront. Hopefully in this are the medical and insurnace communities will decide to move quickly to adopt change.

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  14. Love the graphs! I am super visual, so I loved the graphics and color. The conversion therapy aspect is sad and frustrating, and I am interested if there is anything happening with this.

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    1. Hi Emily
      Thank you for commenting on our poster. Yes, it is very upsetting that a discredited and unethical form of treatment is still allowed in this state. Considering that Texas is in the bible belt I would imagine there are certain groups out there who still believe in this form of therapy. There is sigificant pressure in the state congress to ban this practice. The most recent reference I can find to this topic is an article in the Houston Chronicle dated January 14, 2020 stating that this practice is still legal in Texas. Unfortunately, I also found this article in the Dallas Morning News about a professional who moved to Addison from California and opened up a conversion therapy practice in Addison and says his business is booming. Very sad.
      https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2019/05/02/we-don-t-need-fixing-texas-debates-ban-on-gay-conversion-therapy-for-kids/

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  15. I appreciated the fact ya you wrote the bills That we should be voting no to and yes to. The introduction did a great job of explaining why these bill are so important and the impact voting yes or no to them could have. I also liked the fact that you included links. It gives the reader a more readily available recourse to get a jump on advocating.

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    1. Hi Lauren
      Thank you for your comments and I appreciate that you liked our poster. The links to the resources seemed necessary as some of this information can take some digging. I hope you found the information useful.

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  16. I really like the layout of this poster. It's very organized and informative while catching my eye. I also really liked how there were multiple bills on this poster since there was a focus on protecting the rights of individuals. There were a lot of bills that I was unaware of and having them on a "yay or nay" type of style really caught my attention. It actually made me want to do more digging into these bills! As for the advocacy part, I found it so interesting that you could write to medical schools as well as to a Research Committee. It was something that had never crossed my mine. Thank you guys for such an informative poster.

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    1. Hi Theresa
      Thank you for commenting on our poster. There is a movement that is gaining ground in this area to allow private physicians to practice mental health care as well as "task shifting" health clinics to allow them to practice mental health care as well. This movement is especially popular in more rural areas and in poorer areas where private mental health practitioners may not want to open practices. The primary problem with both of these solutions is that the physicians do not have adequate knowledge to provide comprehensive services. While they may receive some instruction on mental health in medical school it is not sufficient for them to be able to provide comprehensive mental health services to their clients.

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  17. I really appreciate the visual aid you added to your presentation! It was thoughtful when presenting to multiple different learning styles. I was saddened to learn that something that seems like a basic right is currently in legislation as a bill. I appreciated how clearly you outlined the effects of the bill. I now feel a calling to advocate for the increased funding that this bill would allow as a way to counterbalance the unequal disbursements of funds that can be seen throughout the state.- Hannah Minton DeJong

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  18. Your presentation did a wonderful job of educating those who are not as familiar with this bill. By thoroughly outlining what services are provided by community behavioral health clinics, I was able to get a holistic understanding of the impacts this bill will have if it becomes law. I believe that this bill would not only decrease the rates of emotional distress in our country, but would also increase the sense of community amongst the individuals who partake in the services offered by the clinics. In a period of history marked by loneliness, this bill would be a step towards reconstructing desperately needed community.- Hannah Minton DeJong

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    1. Hi Hanna
      Thank you for your comments on our presentation. It was shocking to me as well to find out that this was even an issue. I always assumed that those convered under Medicare and Medicade had access to a wide range of mental health care. It seemed to me that wish would be an issue that all politicians would jump on nad advocate for. Unfortunately, this is what happens when the business of health care is considered more important than actually providing health care.

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