---
type: "Bill"
title: "Mental Health; authorize licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts; secure certification"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 37 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to mental health, so as to authorize a licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts which physicians, psychologists, and others are authorized to perform regarding emergency examinations of persons who are mentally ill or alcoholic or drug dependent; to define certain terms; to require a licensed professional counselor to secure certification to perform certain acts from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2013_14"
identifier: "SB 65"
citation: "Georgia SB 65 (2013_14)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Renee Unterman"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2013-01-18"
last_action: "2014-04-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4ad97706-f7df-4fb6-8e5d-aaf1a1097644"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "1656aa0c2d9aaf1ff59fab1100e9c583ede845d1746731db628115d9f7d7759b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 65 (2013_14) — Mental Health; authorize licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts; secure certification

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 37 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to mental health, so as to authorize a licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts which physicians, psychologists, and others are authorized to perform regarding emergency examinations of persons who are mentally ill or alcoholic or drug dependent; to define certain terms; to require a licensed professional counselor to secure certification to perform certain acts from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As introduced LC 37 1494** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/128634.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/130427.pdf)
3. **Committee sub LC 37 1519S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/129883.pdf)
4. **LC 33 5183S/hss** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/134481.pdf)
5. **SB 65/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/144800.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **51–2** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Renee Unterman — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2013-01-18** Senate Hopper
- **2013-01-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2013-02-06** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2013-02-07** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2013-02-11** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2013-02-11** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2013-02-12** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2013-02-13** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2013-03-14** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2013-03-22** House Postponed
- **2013-03-25** House Postponed
- **2013-03-26** House Postponed
- **2013-03-28** House Withdrawn, Recommitted `referral-committee, withdrawal`
- **2014-02-21** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-03-07** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2014-03-07** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2014-03-20** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2014-03-26** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2014-04-21** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2014-04-21** Act 546 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4ad97706-f7df-4fb6-8e5d-aaf1a1097644`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).