BSRB advisory committee reviews licensee survey; supervision, telehealth and AI flagged for follow-up

Members of the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board——Professional Counselor Advisory Committee examined the results of a statewide licensee survey at their Aug. 4 meeting and identified supervision access, telehealth practice and the use of artificial intelligence as topics for deeper review.

The survey process and results: Executive Director David Fye told the committee that the board conducted parallel surveys for all seven professions regulated by the BSRB. For the professional counseling cohort, Fye said the advisory report preserved open-ended responses as appendices and included summary charts for multiple-choice questions. He asked the committee to focus on two topics for the next meeting: telehealth practice issues and use of artificial intelligence in counseling practice.

Supervision availability and cost: Committee members highlighted recurring concerns about the cost of supervision, difficulties finding supervisors with available openings, and workplace pairings where a preferred supervisor is not credentialed in counseling. Fye said about 227 LPC respondents answered a supervision-specific question and that 151 of those respondents said they had not experienced supervision problems; other respondents did report difficulty finding supervisors, and several noted the burden of supervision fees.

Telehealth and AI: Members discussed telehealth flexibility and whether requiring any in-person supervision would be necessary now that the board permits all supervision remotely. On AI, members said some licensees are using tools for drafting notes and other writing tasks; the committee asked staff to schedule a future presentation on AI and privacy practices. Laura Shaughnessy said a presenter who previously worked at an electronic health-record vendor and now consults on AI may speak at a future meeting.

Supervision manual subcommittee: The advisory committee confirmed that a supervision manual work group will proceed; the committee expects to begin meeting to draft a manual and review statutes and regulations that govern supervision. Several advisory members volunteered or were named to the subcommittee and were told to expect a Doodle poll to schedule meetings.

Next steps: Fye asked members to read the survey appendices on telehealth and AI and to come prepared to discuss those two topics at the next advisory meeting. The committee set its next meeting for Oct. 2 and will continue the survey review and supervision manual work in the interim.