Please sign this petition and send it to several mental health professionals whom you know, or post it on newsgroups, chatrooms or listserves which will be read by mental health professionals. Take paper copies to seminars. If you have no therapists to send or show it to, send your own copy to congress.

If your name is number 20, 30, 40, etc., please send a copy to your United States Senator or Congressperson. E-mail addresses can be found at: http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/U_S__Government/Legislative_Branch/Congressional_Email_Addresses/       (U.S. Mail addresses below)*

(If the word, "addresses" is on a second line, and does not light up in blue on your e-mail copy, be certain that the link works by clicking. Otherwise, cut and paste the address in your browser's address line, ...or just delete everything after the last "/" slashmark, and click on what is left.)

By the time just the 10th name is signed, with each letter sent to 2 friends, there could be as many as 2 X 2 X 2 X..., or 1024 last signatures after just 10 re-sends, X10, or 10,240 signatures total.   After 20 re-sends, there would be over a million. Even 1% of that, assuming some "dead ends," or unsent branches, would allow 10,000 petitions sent to congress.   After 30 re-sends there would be a billion, after 40 a trillion, and after 50 there could be 1,000 trillion copies.

With even 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%, there would be 100,000 petitions each with 50 signatures, or 5,000,000 names (more than there are therapists in the U.S.)   In other words, THERE IS A LOT OF POWER IN STICKING TOGETHER!

You can also print off paper copies, and circulate them at gatherings. (See below)*

This is a request by Mental Health Professionals all over the United States for fair treatment in compensation and hiring by agencies of the United States Government.

To the U.S. Congress and its members:

Be it resolved that:

1. There is rampant discrimination by the U.S. Government favoring social workers, and discriminating against Licensed Professional Counselors and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, in hiring and compensation for delivery of mental health services.

2. This discrimination is not based on comparative ability.   In fact, social workers are typically less well trained in mental health work than are other mental health providers. Rather, it results from the fact that the social work profession has been well organized, and lobbying the U.S. government for a number of decades.

3. Consequently, social workers are unfairly favored for providing mental health services for Medicare, in V.A. hospitals, and in family violence programs in the military.

4. By limiting the source of supply, an artificial inflationary effect is created for the consumer and for the government itself.

5. More detail can be found at: http://www.oocities.org/HotSprings/3616.

6. The U.S. congress should intervene, and order government agencies to cease such practices, and require that, where there is adequate training, as established by licensing agencies, other mental health workers, such as LPC's and LMFT's, must be treated equally with social workers.   You are requested to take action toward this end.

Signed by the citizens below:

1. Gene Douglas, M.Ed. LPC LMFT, Lawton, Oklahoma (gendoug@prodigy.net)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

* Addresses for U.S. Mail:

TO CONTACT CONGRESS:

Addressing Correspondence:

To a Senator:

The Honorable (full name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator (last name):

To a Representative:
The Honorable (full name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative (last name):

Please send all parts of this form to the next petitioner, except for the copy which goes to the congressperson. On that copy, you should omit the first and last sections (such as this one) containing instructions.

You can also print off paper copies, and circulate them at gatherings.     Give copies to your friends to circulate, with the addressing information above.    

Send copies to the next 10 people in your LPC or LMFT directory, or on a name list of your professional association.     (If you have received this by mail, then locate the sender's name, and begin your list 10 names after his.) Or, if his name is vertically above your own, make your list horizontally in the directory, or vise versa.    

Each recipient should then send in his own copy, with his signature at the bottom, and the other signatures Xeroxed above his own.     Make 10 copies of the letter you received, add your own signature, and mail them.

If after many re-copies, the body is becoming fuzzy, either print a new copy from http://www.oocities.org/HotSprings/3616/petition.html , fold the signatures and copy them with the new copy at the top. Or just re-type it and do the same. Set the photocopier's darkness a little light, so the fold doesn't show up on the copies.

(NOTE: It is illegal to send a chain letter, promising untold riches if one will send money to the person 10 names before you, for the obvious reason that it doesn't work. It doesn't work partly because there aren't really that many people in the world, and partly because most people aren't stupid enough to believe that others down the line would actually send money to them, if they didn't have to.

However, if you received this by U.S. mail, I'm sure the person who sent it would appreciate your sending a dollar to help cover his/her costs of mailing. They were out $3.30 for postage, plus maybe .50 for photocopies and .20 for envelopes, and another dollar to the person before them.

So if you should send 10 letters and get $5 back, you'd possibly even pay for your Xerox cost, if not your envelopes. And, it would help keep the momentum going. Don't send anything to number 1 on the list (me) because that's not actually my object in doing this. --Gene Douglas)

Incidentally, another source for addresses is with the AAMFT provider's list. You might want to select those in your city or state, other than MSW's, and mail to them. Start at: http://www.aamft.org/faqs/DirPub.htm

Copy the petition above, sign it, paste it in your e-mail, and send it to all of the therapists you have addresses for. Also, post it in newsgroups, chatrooms, listserves, and any place where therapists are likely to read. Bring paper copies to seminars. If there are no places where you can send or show your copy to other therapists, then send your copy directly to Congress.

Only by sticking together can we have an effect!

*******************************************

The following copy is suitable for copying directly for U.S. mail, only. It is designed for Oklahoma, with ten names vertically and three horizontally per page in the LPC directory:

PETITION

TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Dear Licensed Professional Counselor:

If your name is at the top of a page in the 1999 LPC Directory, please photocopy this letter and send it to the nine names who are below yours. If your name is not at the top, please send a copy to nine whose names are to the right of your own. If your name is on the last three pages, then send copies to nine to the left of your own. If you wish to begin a local LPC organization, then send it to others in your locality.

Please notice who sent it to you, and if his/her name is above your own, or to the left. If the letter came fewer than nine spaces from the left, then please send copies to names below your own. You might also want to send $1 to the sender, which will just about defray his cost of two or three letters. (Do not send money to me, Gene Douglas, because that is not my purpose in sending this.)

Please sign and send one copy to your congressperson, your U.S. Senator, and your state legislators. See http://www.oocities.org/HotSprings/3616/ for more details. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PETITION TO THE U.S. CONGRESS
for
FAIR TREATMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

This is a request by Mental Health Professionals for fair treatment in compensation and hiring by agencies of the United States Government.

To the U.S. Congress and its members:

Be it resolved that:

1. There is rampant discrimination by the U.S. Government favoring social workers, and discriminating against Licensed Professional Counselors and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, in hiring and compensation for delivery of mental health services.

2. This discrimination is not based on comparative ability. In fact, social workers are typically less well trained in mental health work than are other mental health providers. Rather, it results from the fact that the social work profession has been well organized, and lobbying the U.S. government for a number of decades.

3. Consequently, social workers are unfairly favored for providing mental health services for Medicare, in V.A. hospitals, and in family violence programs in the military.

4. By limiting the source of supply, an artificial inflationary effect is created for the consumer and for the government itself.

5. More detail can be found at: http://www.oocities.org/HotSprings/3616.

6. The U.S. congress should intervene, and order government agencies to cease such practices, and require that, where there is adequate training, as established by licensing agencies, other mental health workers, such as LPC's and LMFT's, must be treated equally with social workers. You are requested to take action toward this end.

Signed by the citizens below:

1. Gene Douglas, M.Ed. LPC LMFT, 1912 SW D, #G, Lawton, OK (gendoug@prodigy.net) 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.