Outpatient Counseling centers like Family Service of Roanoke Valley are critical community resources in providing early identification and intervention for children impacted by behavioral health concerns. License-eligible counselors or social workers under clinical supervision of a licensed counselor or social worker providing outpatient counseling to children is a win-win. Children and families have greater access to services and know they are receiving the highest quality services. Agencies are able to add to the workforce pipeline of counselors and social workers by acting as a training ground. This training ground includes a genuine experience serving a vulnerable and high-risk population. Once trained and licensed, these future counselors and social workers are more likely to choose to work with the population served by DMAS and Medicaid due to the experience they gain during supervision. Mental illness can start as young as 7 years old but the average delay in receving treatment is 8 - 10 years. By eliminating the ability of license-eligible counselors or social workers under supervision to serve Medicaid clients—the workforce pipeline will be squeezed nearly shut in a field that is already in more demand than there is supply of people in the field and the delay in treatment will likely increase. DO NOT approve the proposed changes to provider qualifications for psychiatric services as outlined in Chapter II, pages 15-16 to eliminate the ability of residents in counseling and supervisees in social work to see clients in outpatient counseling settings.