Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 16, 1995                   TAG: 9501250015
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL MILLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LAWSUIT CONFRONTS STATE'S NEED TO KNOW

It was late at night, and Julie Ann Clark was breezing through her application for a license to practice law in Virginia. Then she came to Question 20-B: ``Have you within the past five years been treated or counseled for any mental, emotional or nervous disorders?''

Clark, who once was treated for depression, didn't think her mental-health history was the state's business, so she refused to answer the question. ``Counseling is a very private matter,'' said Clark, 38, of Springfield, Va. ``It just doesn't seem to have anything to do with my ability to practice law.''

The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners disagreed and refused to issue her a license.

Nearly a year after Clark passed the state's bar examination, her case is headed to federal court in a battle being watched by mental-health advocates, licensing boards and professionals across the nation.

Clark's case is among the first to be heard in a wave of litigation nationwide that challenges inquiries about mental health on licensing applications for lawyers, doctors, nurses and other professionals.

The dispute is a tug-of-war between licensing boards, which want as much information as possible to assess candidates, and mental-health advocates, who say an applicant's psychological history is irrelevant.

Over the past year, the Justice Department, which is helping Clark and has supported other professionals fighting similar battles in other states, has vigorously pursued changes in state licensing applications, arguing the mental-health questions are discriminatory.

``Asking someone if they've ever seen a psychiatrist or other mental-health provider is nobody's business,'' said James H. Scully Jr., deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association. ``The question is, `Can you do the job?' Mental illness is out there. Stress is all over the place. These stigmas are out of date and counterproductive.''

Responded Erica Moesser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, ``If we said we're not going to screen for anything about mental health, there would and should be a public outcry. I certainly don't think mental health should be out of bounds in making licensing decisions. Who you've been in the last five years is probably relevant to who you're going to be in the next five.''

Few professionals have been denied licenses for providing information about their previous mental health, according to officials. The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, which handles 2,000 applications annually, said 47 people have acknowledged getting counseling or treatment in the past two years, and none was turned away.

But those who have had treatment or counseling typically are required to provide additional details and release their medical records - an unfair intrusion, critics say, into extremely delicate matters covering everything from divorce to bereavement counseling to treatment for serious mental illness.

``Nothing is more intensely personal and private than one's own thoughts and emotions in times of emotional or psychological distress,'' said Victor M. Glasberg, one of Clark's attorneys.

Clark said she hopes the trial, which begins Wednesday at the federal courthouse in will accomplish two goals: fight stigmas about mental illnesses and win a precedent-setting court order to remove mental health questions from Virginia's bar application.

In Florida and New Jersey, questions about previous mental health history were stricken from applications after lawsuits were filed. Other states, including Illinois, New York, Utah and California, have removed such questions voluntarily, as has the District of Columbia.

The Justice Department and mental-health advocates say students who need counseling might be afraid to get it, because it will become a target of future inquiry. This despite the fact that mental disorders affect nearly one in four adults each year in the United States, according to the American Psychiatric Association.