Locate MFT jobs with the VA.
Background:
Marriage and Family Therapists are eligible to be hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs as MFTs in VA facilities.
In order to ensure that returning Veterans have the care that they deserve, on April 19th, the VA announced that it would be hiring an additional 1,900 mental health staff nationwide (1,600 clinicians and 300 support staff). On April 24th, in a follow-up message, the VA announced that MFTs and licensed professional mental health counselors will be included in the additional 1,900 mental health staff nationwide that the VA will be hiring over the next few months. In this April 24th announcement, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki stated that “(t)he addition of these two mental health professions is an important part of VA’s mission to expand access to mental health services.”
The AAMFT is partnering with the VA in order to promote the hiring of MFTs. The VA has already started to recruit MFTs for these additional positions. In order to recruit MFTs and other clinicians to fill these additional positions, the VA has created the Mental Health Hiring Initiative. If you are interested in working with the VA, please click on the VA Mental Health Hiring Initiative banner listed above.
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Efforts to Improve Veterans' Access to MFT Services
The AAMFT is working on efforts to urge the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to improve access to mental health services provided by licensed Marriage and Family Therapists at VA facilities by eliminating specific bureaucratic obstacles.
In 2006, Congress enacted Public Law 109-461 establishing 38 USC § 7401(3) to permit VA to hire MFTs to help serve the increasing number of veterans with mental-health needs. On September 30, 2010, VA issued MFT Job Specifications (VA Handbook 5005/41), required in order for VA to hire MFTs.
VA employs 21,000 mental-health professionals, of which approximately 150 (0.7%) are now MFTs. Yet MFTs comprise about 13% of all U.S. mental-health professionals. (Similarly, only about 0.001% of VA mental-health professionals are Licensed Professional Counselors, who comprise about 26% of all U.S. mental-health professionals). While MFTs’ underrepresentation in VA mental-health staff is partly due to MFTs’ relative newness within VA, the AAMFT believes it also is due to three unnecessarily bureaucratic VA obstacles:
1. Half of all licensed MFTs are barred from eligibility for VA jobs because they do not hold advanced MFT degrees from academic programs that were speciality-accredited (by COAMFTE) at the time those degrees were granted, with no alternative deemed acceptable by VA. This is despite the following:
-Speciality accreditor COAMFTE was not established until 1978, so paradoxically MFTs with the most clinical experience are ineligible for VA.
-Some states (e.g. California) condition licensure on a “deemed status” for MFTs’ educational requirements in lieu of COAMFTE, so about 95% of California MFTs are ineligible for VA jobs.
-Other states (e.g. New York) set MFT licensure eligibility to include persons with degrees in related fields (e.g. psychology), so about 90% of New York MFTs are ineligible because they lack COAMFTE degrees.
2. All advanced MFT students are barred from VA internship stipends, despite Psychology and Social Work students being eligible. After mental-health students complete their academic training, in order to be licensed they must successfully complete clinical internships of at least one year. Many of these students depend on financial stipends in order to live during their internships. But VA bars MFT students – even those in COAMFTE degree programs – from receiving stipends, while Psychology and Social Work students in corresponding APA and CSWE degree programs are stipend-eligible. Because many VA healthcare professionals start their careers through VA clinical internships, barring all MFT interns from stipends reduces the number of newly-licensed MFTs working at VA.
3. VA’s MFT jobs to date are concentrated in Vet Centers, despite major mental-health needs in VA Medical Centers and Clinics. VA operates about 150 Readjustment Counseling Centers (“Vet Centers”) for recently-returned veterans, the sites of most MFT jobs to date. Vet Centers generally are reported to be working well. In contrast, most of the widespread reports of VA mental-health service problems are at Medical Centers (VAMCs, i.e. hospitals) and clinics. Unfortunately, some VA Medical Centers falsely believe MFTs are ineligible for jobs in those facilities. Although AAMFT is pleased that VA recognizes MFTs’ familial and other relationship-based clinical skills in its Vet Centers, we believe MFTs can be part of the solution in VAMCs and clinics. Like other mental-health professionals, MFTs are licensed in all states to diagnose and treat behavioral disorders.
The AAMFT will continue its efforts to advocate for improved access to VA mental health services by urging VA to: 1) establish an alternative to its COAMFTE degree requirement (such as licensure for three or more years); 2) make MFT interns in COAMFTE degree programs eligible for VA stipends; and 3) urge its Regional Networks (VISNs) to include MFTs as eligible for positions in VA hospitals and clinics.
If you are interested in applying for MFT positions with the VA, click here to access the VA's job search website.