The NCPA Law & Psychology Committee, led by Co-Chairs Matthew McNally, Ph.D., ABPP & Mark D. Worthen Psy.D. produced this document, with invaluable legal analysis, research, and writing assistance from Steve Shaber JD, Partner, Poyner Spruill LLP. 

 

Roles and responsibilities, using an abbreviated version of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy:

• Conceptualization - Worthen
• Legal Analysis - Shaber
• Project Coordination - Worthen, McNally, Law & Psychology Committee members
• Research (locating relevant laws, brief literature review) - Worthen & Shaber
• Validation - Shaber, Worthen, & McNally
• Writing – original draft - Worthen
• Writing – review & editing - Shaber, Worthen, McNally, Law & Psychology Committee members

**Please scroll down to open the entire document.**

Purpose

Benefiting Psychologists & the Public

The primary purpose of this document is to provide psychologists who are PSYPACT^® authorization holders with a survey of laws and related resources relevant to the practice of psychology in our state. We aim to help our fellow psychologists learn about North Carolina statutes, regulations, and case law, as well as North Carolina Psychology Board policies, to enhance understanding and promote compliance. We trust this improved understanding will facilitate safer and more effective psychological services for North Carolina’s citizens.

Why Is this Important?

A 2023 journal article explained that although PSYPACT is "an improvement over a patchwork of state laws regarding practice ... it places an unrealistic burden on professionals to know, address, and act under complex legal mandates" because a psychologist practicing into a another state must abide by all of the receiving state's relevant health and safety laws, e.g., mandatory reporting, informed consent, duty to warn or protect, involuntary commitment, and more.

The article's authors argue that national licensure might be the best long-term solution to overcoming this burden, but they acknowledge that this would require the U.S. Congress to pass legislation superseding state licensing laws, a highly unlikely prospect soon. They suggest that an interim solution "would be for the PSYPACT Commission or a similarly situated professional organization to develop a plain-language online database, accessible and easily usable by psychologists throughout the nation, describing the essential health and safety laws of each jurisdiction.

However, to date neither the PSYPACT Commission nor the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) has developed such a database.

Finding Another State’s Relevant Laws Is Difficult

• A jurisdiction's laws consist of statutes, regulations, case law, and psychology board policies.
• A state's psychology board website will list many important laws, but not all of them.
• Statutes relevant to the practice of psychology appear in several different chapters, parts, and sections  of state statutes and regulations, e.g.,
• criminal law.
• health and social services.
• juvenile law.
• mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect.
• organization of a state’s public mental health and substance abuse services.
• involuntary commitment provisions.
• Even if a psychologist locates a relevant statute, the psychologist might not know how the state's  appellate courts  have interpreted the statute.

We therefore decided to help psychologists from other states by compiling a reference document that highlights some of the statutes, regulations, case law, and psychology board policies relevant to the practice of psychology in North Carolina.

Proviso

 Detailed, Complex, and Potentially Confusing Laws

State laws often involve historical layering over time as statutes and regulations are added, repealed, and amended. This fact highlights the complexity of navigating the ethical and legal contours of psychological practice in North Carolina (and other states).
 
With that complexity in mind, please treat this paper as a good start, but not the last word, and remember the following important points:

• Nothing in this paper constitutes legal advice or an opinion about best practice in a particular case.
• This paper is written for all psychologists practicing in North Carolina, but especially for those practicing into North Carolina from other jurisdictions, so we emphasize information that is specific to North Carolina.
• This paper cannot, and does not, contain all the potentially relevant information that psychologists practicing in North Carolina – physically or remotely – should know.
• This paper might contain errors, including unintended omissions.
• This paper addresses only laws and other authorities specific to psychologists. North Carolina laws, regulations, and licensing board policies governing other mental health professionals might differ from those governing the practice of psychology. 
• Clinicians who are licensed as psychologists and as mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, and others should also consult the laws, regulations, and policies for their other licenses.

With the limitations of this paper in mind, all psychologists should:

•  Seek legal counsel about your obligations in a specific case. Most liability insurance carriers offer free time-limited legal consultation to policyholders.
• Know that the North Carolina Psychology Board staff may offer informal counsel, particularly on matters of Board policy, although we advise giving them sufficient time to respond to a request, as the Board is a busy state agency with many important responsibilities.