Competent Provision of Services

Subdivision 1. Limits on practice. Alcohol and drug counselors shall limit their practice to the client populations and services for which they have competence or for which they are developing competence. Subd. 2. Developing competence. When an alcohol and drug counselor is developing competence in a service, method, procedure, or to treat a specific client population, the alcohol and drug counselor shall obtain professional education, training, continuing education, consultation, supervision, or experience, or a combination thereof, necessary to demonstrate competence. Subd. 3. Experimental, emerging, or innovative services. Alcohol and drug counselors may offer experimental services, methods, or procedures competently and in a manner that protects clients from harm. However, when doing so, they have a heightened responsibility to understand and communicate the potential risks to clients, to use reasonable skill and safety, and to undertake appropriate preparation as required in subdivision 2. Subd. 4. Limitations. Alcohol and drug counselors shall recognize the limitations to the scope of practice of alcohol and drug counseling. When the needs of clients appear to be outside their scope of practice, providers shall inform the clients that there may be other professional, technical, community, and administrative resources available to them. Providers shall assist with identifying resources when it is in the best interests of clients to be provided with alternative or complementary services. Subd. 5. Burden of proof. Whenever a complaint is submitted to the board involving a violation of this section, the burden of proof is on the provider to demonstrate that the elements of competence have reasonably been met.