You’ve all probably seen the headlines that SCOTUS just decided that therapists in Colorado can practice conversion therapy with minors, with the rationale that banning conversion therapy “censors speech based on viewpoint.”
Ultimately this points to just how trivial mental health is in the minds many. To them this isn’t a case of someone ill who’s receiving healthcare, it’s instead some petty conversation between a kid and an adult. Therefore SCOTUS doesn’t seem bothered by overstepping professional standards of care and making their ruling. It’s ignorance on parade at the highest level of the justice system.
Imagine this wasn’t the case that faced the SCOTUS. Instead, let’s pretend it was a case of a homosexual teenager who committed suicide in large part because their therapist explicitly suggested they do it. We’ll further pretend that the therapist is another evangelical nut job; they felt based on their religious beliefs that the child was regularly sinning in some egregious way by being gay, and the kid dying would at least be one less homosexual sinner in the world.
I can’t possibly imagine - even given the MAGAness of this era we’re in - that SCOTUS would rule in favor of the therapist by using their same rationale as this IRL decision in Colorado. The obvious nature of the explicit harm would be noted, and they’d condemn the therapist for reckless practice.
Counseling isn’t some whimsical process that’s removed from the bounds of other forms of healthcare. It’s governed by boards. There are standards of care that must be abided by. One of said standards is using evidence-based methods.
Conversion therapy is broadly condemned as not only being NOT evidence-based care, but also for being objectively harmful. Every relevant professional organization - APA, AMA, SAMHSA, NASW, etc etc - opposes it. Full stop.
For American youth, we’re quite literally in the midst of a mental health crisis that could aptly be described as a national emergency. As such it would be pretty fantastic if people in positions of power would start recognizing licensed mental health professionals as legitimate healthcare practitioners and allow their standards of care to be respected.
Like I totally understand that talking to the patient is a larger part of this version of healthcare than it is in other versions, but that doesn’t mean therapists should be given free reign to say all kinds of heinous and harmful shit to minors in their care. On the contrary; we need to be even MORE careful that the talking (…treatment) is actually an evidence-based way to address the kid’s issues.
SCOTUS is quite literally giving healthcare providers the green light to actively and deliberately harm patients. “You have freedom of speech so go say whatever you want to your patient, even if what you’re saying is objectively and demonstrably harmful.” What a world we live in.