The AAMFT Blog

What You Need to Consider Before Returning to the Office

This content is provided by SimplePractice, an affinity partner of AAMFT. This information is not necessarily the views of AAMFT and should not be interpreted as official policy. To view the original post, visit SimplePractice's website. 

How to Decide to Return to In-Person Care
Even with stay-at-home orders in place, a wide variety of healthcare workers have been deemed “essential workers” and are allowed to work from their offices—depending on their state and city regulations, of course.

But as governors around the country prepare to ease stay-at-home orders, health and wellness professionals are facing difficult choices about returning to in-person care. As some practitioners are starting to be allowed to offer in-person care again, many have chosen to stick with telehealth sessions instead.

Should You Start Offering In-Person Appointments Again?
It was a difficult choice for many practitioners to close their (physical) doors, but deciding when to return poses an even greater challenge. And it’s a decision that will have to be made by each and every practitioner. As you try to decide when you’re ready to welcome clients back to your office, here are four factors to consider.

1. Your Risk Factors
Right now, age and health are the two identified risk factors for complications from COVID-19—the disease caused by a coronavirus infection. However, there’s no age or health category that’s risk-free. You should not only consider your own age and health, but also the age and health of those you make regular contact with.

People who have coronavirus may be symptom-free even while they’re contagious. Just because you or your clients are not presently experiencing symptoms does not mean that you can be sure you’re not carrying—and transmitting—the virus.

If you believe you’ve been exposed or are feeling sick, you shouldn’t take the risk of potentially exposing your clients, colleagues, and others. The CDC recommends self-monitoring, self-quarantine, or self-isolation—depending on the nature of your known exposure.

2. Your Clients’ Wellbeing
Who you work with matters as well. If your clients want telehealth and can be effectively served via telehealth, that should help you sustain your practice without opening your clients to unnecessary risk. However, you may find it challenging to maintain virtual sessions with some clients—either because of their age, their specific symptoms, the technology available to them, or other reasons.

Consider who your clients come in contact with. If they’re regularly in contact with high-risk individuals, then it may not be the right time to return to in-person care just yet.

Of course, reopening your office to clients doesn’t necessarily mean reopening your office to all clients. You may choose to initially limit in-person client contact to only individuals who can’t be served via telehealth for whatever reason.

3. Your Physical Space

It’s worth considering what your space allows in terms of both physical distancing and contact with shared surfaces. An individual practice in a larger office may be able to hold enough space between client and provider to reduce any risk of transmission. You can also stagger appointments to allow more time to clean any shared surfaces between appointments.

On the other hand, if your office space has a shared waiting area, small rooms, recirculated air, or other limiting factors, it can increase the likelihood of transmission. If your office space doesn’t allow you to use best practices, you may want to be more cautious about reopening.

When you are ready to reopen, the CDC offers resources for businesses, including guidance for reducing infection risk in workspaces. It may also be useful to review the CDC guidelines for community facilities.

4. Your Community

As states and communities progress toward the designated milestones for reopening their economies, keep in mind that not every community will be moving at the same pace.  Just because in-person practice is technically allowed where you live and work doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right move for your practice. Part of your assessment may include community factors like population density and community norms, as assessed by what other providers are doing.

Ultimately, each practice will need to determine on its own when the conditions are right to reopen and at what pace. In addition to reviewing the most recent guidance from health officials, you may want to consult with your commercial landlord, your liability insurance provider, your co-workers, and your clients.

SimplePractice customers can access the COVID-19 screening questionnaire in their note template library to begin screening clients who would like to resume in-person care

Breaking News on MFTs in Medicare Bill!

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee will hold a remote legislative hearing on Tuesday, June 30 to discuss legislation that would add LMFTs as recognized Medicare providers - H.R. 945, the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019 – along with several other bills to improve mental health during crisis.  

AAMFT appreciates the House Energy and Commerce Committee for scheduling this important hearing on improving mental health during crisis. This hearing is one of the first steps in moving the MFTs in Medicare legislation through Congress. To advocate for MFTs as Medicare providers, please contact your Members of Congress and urge them to support MFTs as Medicare providers. Stay up to date on the hearing, and visit the AAMFT Blog for additional updates as more information is made available.

AAMFT Signs Letter to Congress Supporting Research on Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19

AAMFT and many other mental health organizations wrote a letter to Congress supporting passage of legislation, H.R. 6645, which would require the federal government to conduct or support research on the mental health consequences of COVID-19.

Read the full letter here. 

How to Write a Better Homepage that Gets Clients to Contact You

This content is provided by Brighter Vision, an affinity partner of AAMFT. This information is not necessarily the views of AAMFT and should not be interpreted as official policy. 

You already know that your homepage is important. After all, it’s the very first thing your website visitors see, the face of your site!

The introductory text you write for your homepage is the very first chance you get to greet your potential clients and persuade them to choose your practice. It’s not an opportunity you want to waste.

If you’re worrying that your own homepage might not be written up to snuff right now, fret not! We’ve cracked the recipe for a solid, engaging private practice homepage that will entice your potential clients to reach out to you right away, and boiled it down into 3 easy steps for beginners.

How to Write a Better Homepage

1. Connect with your ideal client

The first thing your homepage text should do is call out to your ideal client. There are a couple great ways to do this. One of the most powerful is by identifying what your ideal client struggles with. This shows that you understand and sympathize with what they’re going through, which your clients will feel is necessary in order for you to help them.

>> Struggling to figure out who your ideal client is? <<

Take Brighter Vision’s free Ideal Client Quiz today!

Take this example from the homepage of Abby’s therapy practice, Welcome Home Family Therapy.

Image credit: Welcome Home Family Therapy

See how she starts off with a series of questions that pinpoint issues specific to clients struggling with family relationships and communication issues? Abby has identified her ideal clients as those who are experiencing these familial issues in their home and are therefore best suited for her kind of in-home group therapy.

Another great way to connect with your ideal client right away is to show that you understand their goals for both their personal life and their expectations for therapy.

Let’s look at this example from Tammy Toriello’s private practice website:

Image credit: Tammy Toriello, LMHC

Tammy opens up with a motivation her ideal clients can connect to, already putting herself on their team as she provides encouragement that identifies with those potential clients. Empowering your potential clients by making their goals seem so achievable (-with you) makes them more likely to want to take charge of their own care by hitting that button to schedule an appointment.

Federal Provider Relief Funds Available to Medicaid and CHIP Providers

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that $15 billion would be available to eligible state Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) providers. This funding is available to Medicaid and CHIP providers under the Provider Relief Fund, which was established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and funded by appropriations through the CARES Act and an additional supplemental funding bill.

According to the announcement, payments are now available to eligible Medicaid and CHIP providers equal to at least 2 percent of reported gross revenues from patient care in calendar years 2017, 2018, or 2019, as selected by the provider. This funding is supposed to provide relief to eligible providers who are now experiencing lost revenues or increased expenses due to COVID-19. According to HHS, the types of providers eligible for this funding include behavioral health providers, dentists, and other healthcare providers. Therefore, MFTs who are Medicaid or CHIP providers should be eligible to apply and receive funding under this distribution.

Eligible providers must apply online to HHS for funding. There are many terms and conditions pertaining to this funding, which can be found here, including the following:

• Providers must have directly billed their state Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid managed care plans for healthcare services between January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019.
• Providers must have filed a federal income tax return in 2017, 2018, or 2019, or otherwise exempt from filing a tax return.
• Providers must have provided patient care after January 31, 2020.
• Providers must not have received payments from the $50 billion Provider Relief Fund General Distribution to Medicare providers.
• Providers must not have ceased providing patient care.

To apply to funding, please apply through the enhanced provider relief portal.

For additional information on the distribution of funds to MFTs and other providers who are state Medicaid or CHIP providers, please see the Provider Relief Fund FAQs on the HHS website, especially the section on this website pertaining to the Medicaid distribution. Members are strongly urged to read the relevant terms and conditions and FAQs before applying. The government has the ability to change the terms and conditions of this program, so it is possible that some of the terms and conditions may change.

Providers with questions can call the HHS vendor’s provider support line at (866) 569-3522. The application deadline for applying is July 20, 2020.

AAMFT is glad that the federal government is finally distributing funds under the Provider Relief Fund to Medicaid and CHIP providers. The first distributions under the fund were made in April. However, only Medicare providers were eligible to receive these funds, thus leaving out many providers not enrolled in Medicare, such as LMFTs. On April 17, AAMFT sent a letter to HHS urging the Department to make additional funds available to all providers impacted by COVID-19, including Medicaid providers and other behavioral health and other healthcare providers who are not currently Medicare providers. We thank HHS for distributing these funds to eligible Medicaid and CHIP providers. We encourage the government to distribute additional funds to MFTs and other behavioral health providers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you have any questions to AAMFT about this program, please contact us at [email protected].

MFTs For Systemic Change

Originally posted in the Family TEAM community, a network of advocates who are interested in furthering MFT policy interest.

Our country is in a state of emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent outcry from people of color and people against racial injustice serve as a symptom of the deep-rooted reality of our society. This dual crisis has begun to uncover the ugly truths of an inadequate system that the United States of America was built upon.

Leaders and government officials discuss this as a systemic problem that requires more than basic change. I hear a need for Systemic Change. Who knows more about how to introduce systemic change than systemic thinkers? Marriage and family therapists are trained to not only see problems systemically but to invoke Systemic Change.

Viewing the current state of our country through a systemic lens, it is evident that one person cannot be blamed for the problem. Not one community is the problem. Not one governmental official is the problem, nor one political party be blamed for the problem. Most importantly, not one race is the problem.

However, what is clear is we are all affected by the problem.

We understand when our clients sit in front of us, their difficulties are not only connected to their immediate circle. Their issues are also related to societal concerns. Our communities need Marriage & Family Therapists to rise out of our comfort zones and do the work outside of the therapy room. It is time for our work to be done on a macro-level. We are privileged with a systemic insight into society's influences on our clients. We must not continue to be bystanders to our clients' needs for systemic change.

As Marriage and Family Therapists, we can no longer limit our abilities to individuals, couples and families. We must begin to expand our reach to both national and global levels. Our society is calling for a systemic change. I recognize this as a direct call to Marriage & Family Therapist to become global agents of change.

I believe that we, as Marriage & Family Therapists and Marriage & Family Therapist Trainees, have the answers. I know that we have the ability to heal the country and create the systemic change that our country desires. America needs our expertise.

Join me in raising our profession to leadership. We are experts in the area of Systemic Change, and this is a call to action for Marriage & Family Therapist and Marriage & Family Therapy students.

With the current state of our society, I implore you to reflect on how your bystander stance inhibits the growth of your clients and the Marriage & Family profession? How does this stance hinder your personal growth?

I ask you to answer these questions.

What is your role as a Marriage & Family Therapist?

What can our profession do on a macro-level to create Systemic Change?

If you would like to dialogue about MFT’s about creating systemic change on a macro-level please join us on Facebook group MFT’s for Systemic Change or email me at  [email protected]

Shacoya Graham has always been a social activist at heart.

Having the privilege to travel alongside families during their fertility journey has expanded her value in trust, empathy, and humility.  During her career in the medical field, she witnessed a gap between medical and mental health, this inspired her desire to bridge the gap by advocating for Mental Health & Wellness.

Shacoya Graham obtained her bachelor’s degree in Human Services from Queens University of Charlotte and recently completed her Masters of Marriage & Family Therapy degree from Pfeiffer University. She is excited to connect with people to create healthier individuals, families, and communities. 

National Mental Health Coalition Supports MFTs as Medicare Providers

A prominent national mental health coalition, the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG),  has just released a letter to Congress in support of legislation (HR 945) to add licensed marriage and family therapists, as well as licensed mental health counselors, as Medicare providers.  The MHLG is a coalition if national organizations representing behavioral health providers, consumers, payers and other organizations committed to increasing access to behavioral healthcare for all Americans.  AAMFT is a longtime member of the MHLG. 

The MHLG releases official letters of support for legislation if the legislation is supported by at least a majority of the 70+ full members of the MHLG.  The MHLG letter in support of adding LMFTS and LMHCs as Medicare providers was cosigned by AAMFT and 43 other MHLG members.  This letter is a significant step in the fight to add LMFTs as Medicare providers. This letter demonstrates to Congress that the mental health community supports including LMFTs and LMHCs as Medicare-eligible providers. The MHLG letter will be shared with Members of Congress. We believe that this letter will lead to more support among Members of Congress for including LMFTs and LMHCs as providers of behavioral health services to Medicare beneficiaries.

Read the full letter at this link. 

An Update on AAMFT20 and Upcoming Events for MFTs

Dear Members and Friends,

It is a bittersweet moment today as I write to inform you that we will be cancelling the in-person 2020 AAMFT Annual Conference scheduled for November 12-15 in Orlando, Florida.

The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have hit us all hard. We have been forced to re-imagine the way we work. Our lives and those of our clients have been stressed dealing with health concerns and care disparities, economic impacts, and disruptions to our daily lives and those of our families. And we are uncertain of when this all will end.

That pain is now being compounded by the recent incidents of racial violence and trauma being inflicted upon so many members of our AAMFT family.

Historically, the AAMFT conference has offered us an opportunity to come together and discuss our role as MFTs in impacting societal change. We have been able to engage and join with our peers to reinforce our commitment to one another. There is certainly a great sense of loss in cancelling our largest event of the year, possibly at a time when we need it most, but ultimately the public health and safety concerns and uncertainty for in-person events dictate we must make this difficult decision.

But much as each of our MFTs have risen to the challenges and continue to do the work that is so necessary right now, I want to assure you that AAMFT will rise to this call. Staff will be using the weeks ahead to re-imagine our event with our speakers and researchers to move into a virtual format integrating opportunities for us all to learn and engage with one another in the ways we value.

As we have seen from our meaningful At Home series and the richness of our MFT Virtual Hangouts, we need to connect with others in the profession. Our members have been doing amazing work during this time and I have never been prouder to be an MFT and I believe our work can truly impact vitally necessary change.

So I encourage you to save the date on your calendar now for our Virtual AAMFT Annual Conference, to be held during the week of November 9, when we will gather together as a community and learn and grow together. I can promise you this will not be an experience you want to miss! And with our event now more accessible than ever, I hope you will be able to be a part of it.

And in the meantime, consider joining us for these impactful, cutting-edge training opportunities AAMFT is offering this month:

• Special At Home Session with Brittany Packnett (Tuesday, June 9; 1 – 2 p.m. eastern): Join us as we welcome award-winning national leader in social justice, and 2019 AAMFT Keynote Speaker, Brittany Packnett for a special At Home session. As an advocate for urgent systemic change at critical decision making tables, and an appointed member of both the Ferguson Commission and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Brittany offers unique insights that MFTs can use to have courageous conversations with our clients about racism and systemic oppression. 1 CE will be offered.

• Virtual Advanced Clinical Institutes (June 25 – 26): Designed specifically for the advanced clinician and offered in our most intimate settings, the Institutes have been re-imagined to offer you two days of deep dives with some of the most cutting edge thinkers and trainers in our industry from around the world. Find out more at aamft.org/institutes

And as you continue to navigate these uncertain times, I would encourage you to check in often with our AAMFT blog. Recent resources such as our Resources for MFTs in a Racialized Climate and our Guide to Reopening Practices offer support and assistance. If you weren’t able to attend our At Home series sessions, recordings will be available for viewing throughout the summer. And if you are feeling a need to connect, be sure to join one of our Virtual MFT Hangouts to chat with other members.

 

Thank you for being a vital part of the AAMFT community.

Tracy Todd

CEO, AAMFT

AAMFT Statement on MFT Responsibility to Counter Racism

Recognizing that relationships are fundamental to the health and well‐being of individuals, couples, families, and communities, AAMFT exists to advance the profession and the practice of marriage and family therapy. Because we value how systems impact families and communities, AAMFT is outraged by the continued racial trauma, violence, and loss that our communities of color are experiencing in this country.

Our members, our clients, and our society are hurting deeply and we must stand together and in solidarity against injustice. There is no room in our society for inequality and it is vital that we use our platform, relationships, and training to enact change. It is a core value in AAMFT to support, promote, and protect diversity, to value all individuals and groups as free from prejudice and oppression as possible, and to foster a climate where equity and mutual respect are intrinsic.

Marriage and family therapists have a direct responsibility to counter racism. We are uniquely positioned to understand and recognize the systemic effect that oppression, inequity, and overt and covert racism have on individuals in marginalized communities and have a role in fostering healing and growth. Therefore, AAMFT stands in support of our members dedicated to advancing the fundamental rights, health, safety, and well-being of all individuals, relationships, and communities. We encourage all members to have authentic dialogue to advance systemic change. As an organization, we will continue to advocate against societal inequalities and seek solutions in our clinical, research, community, and policy work to ensure that vital change is occurring.

Resources for MFTs in a Racialized Climate

AAMFT encourages authentic dialogue within the MFT community on race and trauma. Marriage and family therapists understand and recognize the systemic effect that oppression, inequity, and overt and covert racism have on individuals in marginalized communities, and have a role in fostering healing and maintaining change.

Find the following resources below:

• For Persons of Color about Self Care
• Practical Ways to Counter Racism  and Support Black People as MFTs
• Recommended Reading List

Recommended Resources: 

• Courageous Conversations with Our Clients
• Mental Health and Black Adolescents - Ashley Hicks White, PhD
• Black Women and Depression: Removing the Cape - DeAnna Harris-McCoy, PhD and Taimyr Strachan, MS
• The Relevance of Social Justice for Today's Therapists - Nicole Perryman, MA, MSW
• First Person: Dear Black Professionals of AAMFT - Cherry Tolbert, MA
• Anti-racism resources - compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein

For Persons of Color about Self Care:

Radical Self-Care

Strategies for Healing

Practical Ways to Counter Racism and Support Black People as MFTs:

1. Acknowledge that racism and discrimination exist and is currently prevalent.
2. Acknowledge your power and privilege due to your social location. Privilege is when a person or group of persons are afforded special rights, immunities, and/or advantages that others are not afforded. Your privilege may be connected to the intersection of your race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, level education, physical ability. You may experience simultaneous privilege and subjugation. It is important that we are aware and are accountable for the areas in which we are privileged. We all share the privilege of serving as clinicians and/or researchers. We must be accountable for the advantages and responsibilities this connected to our position.
3. Take inventory of your own biases and assumptions. This can be done by being aware of your immediate reactions to the plethora of media reports and social media posts connected to race and racial crimes. What do you assume to be “true”? What informs this “truth” for you?
4. Balance your conversations – remain in conversation with those of the same and different viewpoints. If the majority of your personal conversations mirror your personal beliefs, the ability to expand your perceptions and understanding in your professional role is quite limited.
5. Your clients should not be the only people of color that you are in relational conversation. No matter how we view it, you are in the role of power as a therapist, and should allow yourself space to converse with others of whom you do not maintain a ‘power over’ position.
6. Begin to become comfortable with discomfort. Avoid offering a, “that’s interesting,” to your client, friend, or someone else who is trying to “go there,” in terms of a conversation or sharing their experience connected to race. Engage in the conversation.
7. Be willing to really hear the experiences of black people. We all want to be heard, but the conversation is often paralyzed, as there is far little safe space for black people to process what is going on for them, with so much exposure to racial trauma.
8. Despite your own possible feelings, refrain from minimizing experiences of marginalized groups. Although you may have your own story, that does not negate the experiences of those who have been marginalized, or make their experiences any less real.
9. Work for change out of love and not guilt. If you are guided by your own guilt, you may seek validation from black people, which, again, prioritizes your own experience. This, again, is steeped in white supremacy.
10. Challenge those who trust you. If one trusts you enough to share their racist joke with you, become curious about their intentions and beliefs. Keep people accountable and responsible for their language and actions. Why are they so comfortable with racist ideology with you?
11. Connect harmless racism with hate crimes. The Charleston perpetrator’s friends have repeatedly stated that he told “harmless, racist jokes.” Any form of racism has deleterious effects. People around him were complicit or explicitly supporting his ideology. Counter it.
12. Just as we would become quite curious if we suspected child, elder, or partner abuse as clinicians, we should be as sensitive to racism, as its effects have proven to be just as, if not more dangerous, as other crimes against others.

Recommended Reading List