68-24-608 - Scope of counseling activities.
68-24-608. Scope of counseling activities.
(a) Alcohol and other drug abuse counseling includes the following:
(1) The evaluation and treatment of problems and misconceptions of persons who abuse mood-altering chemicals within the context of individual, group, familial and significant other systems;
(2) The evaluation and treatment of those persons who have had their lives significantly impacted by another person's use of alcohol or other abuse of drugs. Alcohol and other drug abuse counseling includes the provision of the primary functions which may be performed by licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselors; and
(3) The evaluation and treatment of those persons who have had their lives significantly impacted by compulsive gambling disorder; provided, however, that to evaluate or treat a person significantly impacted by compulsive gambling disorder, a counselor shall have not less than sixty (60) additional hours of specialized education relating to compulsive gambling disorder. The education shall be in the form of formal classroom hours or annual continuing educational hours, or a combination of such hours; provided further, that an applicant for license as a part of the applicants clinically supervised counseling experience shall have experience with not less than ten (10) patients impacted by compulsive gambling disorder. A qualified supervisor shall have not less than sixty (60) formal classroom hours of instruction related to compulsive gambling disorder to supervise a counselor relative to the evaluation and treatment of compulsive gambling disorder.
(b) Nothing in this part shall be construed as permitting any person licensed as an alcohol and drug abuse counselor to perform psychological testing intended to measure and/or diagnose mental illness. Consistent with each counselor's formal education and training, licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselors may administer and use appropriate assessment instruments which identify elements of perceptual inability to recognize empirical facts, problems of appropriately displaying emotions, and inappropriate responses to the environment of individuals, couples and families as part of the alcohol and other drug abuse therapy process or in the development of a treatment plan in the context of chemical abuse systems.
[Acts 1997, ch. 453, § 6; 2009, ch. 459, § 1.]