SB188 Summary

• Amends Section 34-17A-3 of the Code of Alabama 1975 to expand the definition of marriage and family therapy to explicitly include the diagnosis of mental and emotional disorders.

• Adds "diagnose" as a specific function within the practice of marriage and family therapy alongside existing functions of assess, understand, and treat.

• Changes terminology from "emotional and mental problems" to "mental and emotional disorders" throughout the definition.

• Maintains existing limitations on marriage and family therapists, prohibiting them from administering psychological tests, admitting patients to hospitals, prescribing drugs, authorizing laboratory procedures, or using electroconvulsive therapy.

• Becomes effective on the first day of the third month following passage and approval by the Governor.