“Art therapists excluded from mental health expansion bills” - Albany Times Union

ALBANY — Art therapists are objecting to their exclusion from a series of bills designed to expand access to mental health services in New York.

Three recently enacted laws — including one signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 31 — that enable a wider range of mental health professionals to diagnose mental illness and bill insurance companies for outpatient treatment were amended in the final hours to exclude art therapy practitioners.

The state started licensing creative arts therapists, called LCATs, in 2006 along with mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychoanalysts — despite fierce opposition from social workers' associations, which argue that their qualifications and training are more rigorous.

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