Manitoba therapists request government regulation

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This article was published 17/05/2021 (1073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mental health therapists are asking the province to regulate their profession, saying it’s become a dangerous place for Manitobans who seek help.

Currently, people can find a therapist though a variety of sources, such as word of mouth or online, said Don Russell, chairman of the Federation of Associations for Counselling Therapists, Manitoba branch.

“The Internet is like the wild, Wild West. Anyone can stick a web page up in a day and call themselves a therapist,” said Russell, whose association has submitted a 700-page formal application to the Health Professions Advisory Council for regulation of mental health therapists in Manitoba.

The council looks into and advises the health minister on matters related to the Regulated Health Professions Act and the regulation of Manitoba’s health professions, including the minister’s referrals of applications for designation as a self-regulating profession under the act.

“As a profession, we’ve made a submission to the government asking them to collaborate with us to create a college,” Russell said Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, right now, for citizens in Manitoba, it’s on them to do their due diligence,” he said.

Russell figures there are more than 600 practitioners in Manitoba who are not regulated. Members of the nine Manitoba associations that represent professional counselling therapists have heard from clients about how an unregulated landscape is “dangerous” for people seeking help, Russell said.

“We hear anecdotally from clients who’ve had poor experiences with therapists who are untrained or incompetent,” he said. “An untrained therapist simply may not able to recognize the signs and symptoms of a severe and persistent mental illness (and) treats that person with a simple ‘get over yourself’ kind of solution when what that person needs is a more sophisticated therapy.”

Sometimes a therapist may not recognize the limits of their competence, such as recommending that a client stop taking prescribed medication, said Russell.

“They’re not staying in their lane. Without regulation, Manitobans are at risk from harm from unregulated professionals,” he said.

There should be a gold-standard regulatory college so Manitobans can be assured that a mental health therapist has demonstrated competence through academic training, such as a master’s or doctorate in counselling psychology, which Russell has, or from other knowledge and experience, such as an aboriginal healer who may not have formal credentials but has demonstrated competence, he said.

“If they’re a registered counselling therapist, we know they have the training, and there’s an avenue of complaint if things aren’t going well,” he said.

Other provinces, including Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Alberta, have established regulatory oversight of the profession.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca