Heather Lynette Sinclair
In times of innocence or maybe too much trust in those we believe are here to protect us/support us/keep us safe, there are more reminders for all of us just about everyday that just because someone is a teacher, a priest, a coach, a doctor or the nice person who lives down the street…there are predators out there.
Joining me in the studio this week to talk about the issue of predators in the mental health professions is Heather Lynette Sinclair who is the founder of Lynette’s Law for Maryland, a grassroots movement that seeks to spread awareness about sexual exploitation by mental health professionals.
Heather’s movement created a two-bill legislation package that aims to require criminal history checks for all mental health professionals and to criminalize sexual exploitation by those same professionals.
House Bill 56, Lynette’s Law, was passed into law by the Maryland General Assembly in April 2013 and now requires those criminal background checks. But, there’s more to do.
In addition to her lobbying and advocacy work, Heather is in the process of forming a national non-profit, National Alliance Against Exploitation by Professionals (NAAEP). The mission of this group will be to empower both professionals and the public by spreading awareness about the sexual exploitation and boundary violations within the mental health profession and to empower victim-survivors of therapist abuse by advocating for their emotional, educational and legal needs. NAAEP seeks to push legislation that will require the mental health profession to be held to the highest legal and ethical standards possible.
Join us this week to learn more about Heather’s important and much needed work and find out how your voice can be heard to support this issue.
Tune in on Saturday, December 21st, from 6:07-7:00 pm ET on Talkradio 680 WCBM Baltimore or “Listen Live” online.
You can also download the WCBM 680 app at iTunes or for Android
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Taylor, Ann, Amy & Danita
Be sure to check out last week’s show – Well, If You’re Going to Eat Cookies… – when I talked with Taylor Williams, a 16 year-old junior from Howard County, MD who is a real cookie-selling veteran; Danita Terry, the Director of Communications & Media Relations for Girl Scouts of Central Maryland and Amy Lettman, MS, RD, LDN, CDE with the Diabetes Center of The Maryland Metabolic Institute at Saint Agnes Hospital, about the new, healthier Girl Scout cookies and the business of cookie selling.
If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it’s in the podcast archive now. It’s the December 14th show!
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