Our Work: Advocacy
Much of AMHCA’ s advocacy work is done through collaboration with powerful coalitions made up of national organizations that represent the mental health counseling workforce.
MENTAL HEATH LIAISON GROUP( MHLG)
The MHLG is a nonprofit coalition of national organizations representing people with mental health and substance use conditions, family members and caregivers, providers of mental health and substance use treatment and support, advocates, and other stakeholders committed to strengthening Americans’ access to mental health and substance use care. Through this coalition, AMHCA signed on to 16 advocacy letters to the current administration in 2025.
MEDICARE MENTAL HEALTH WORKFORCE COALITION( MMHWC)
The MMHWC is a group of national and state organizations collectively representing hundreds of thousands of mental health providers, clients, patients, and other stakeholders. The past few years, the Coalition produced webinars, toolkits, and updates on Medicare information to help support the growing behavioral health workforce serving America’ s older adults.
PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING LEADERSHIP COALITION
A group of counseling organizations met in late February as a Professional Counseling Leadership Coalition to address concerns affecting all of our organizations as it relates to workforce expansion, research and best practices, ethics and values, and how to thrive in an environment that jeopardizes our credibility, retention and sustainability. As AMHCA President I represented the organization at this meeting and others.
COUNSELORS UNITED FOR LEGISLATIVE ENGAGEMENT( CULE)
This year, AMHCA joined this coalition spearheaded by NBCC. CULE formed to foster collaboration among leading counseling organizations with a shared goal: to effectively address federal government issues that impact professional counselors and their clients. This alliance recognizes the importance of unified advocacy in shaping policies and regulations that influence the counseling profession at the national level. This year, CULE held meetings and sent a letter to Secretary Linda McMahon, highlighting the importance of Department of Education programs that support the mental health initiatives in our nation’ s schools.
COUNSELING COMPACT
The AMHCA Board of Directors fully endorses passage of the Counseling Compact by state legislators. AMHCA advocates for the over 130,000 licensed clinical mental health counselors in the United States who are licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat mental disorders.
2024-25 AMHCA Annual Report