Allow non-cacrep Licensed Professional Counselors to work for the V.A. to provide mental health services for veterans.

The vast majority of Licensed Mental Health Counselors in this country are graduates of psychology programs that were never accredited by the CACREP organization. Primarily because CACREP was an accreditation body for "school counseling" In an attempt to have an national education standard for LMHC employment they were picked by the Veterans Administration. This has caused a domino effect that not only bars graduates of nearly every psychology program in the nation including Harvard, John Hopkins etc. from working with Veterans but it has created a serious threat to our profession and leaves veterans in need of services we can provide. There are thousands of highly qualified, state licensed mental health therapist that should have an alternative entry way to grandfather into V.A. jobs.