Grievance Policy

Sacramento Valley Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (SVC-CAMFT) is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists. SVC-CAMFT will comply with all legal and ethical responsibilities to be non-discriminatory in promotional activities, program content and in the treatment of program participants. The monitoring and assessment of compliance with these standards will be the responsibility of the Program Co-Chairs in consultation with the members of SVC-CAMFT’s Board of Directors and/or the Program Committee.

While SVC-CAMFT goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues which come to the attention of the Program Committee which will require intervention and/or action on the part of the Program Committee. This procedural description serves as a guideline for handling such grievances.

When a participant, files a grievance and expects action on the complaint, the following actions will be taken.

The participants will be asked to put their concerns in writing.
If the grievance concerns a speaker, the content presented by the speaker, or the style of presentation, the individual filing the grievance will be asked to put his/her comments in written format. One of the Program Co-Chairs will then pass on the comments to the speaker, assuring the confidentiality of the grieved individual.
If the grievance concerns a workshop or training offering, its’ content, level of presentation, or the facilities in which the workshop was offered, one of the Program Co-Chairs will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, one of the Program Co-Chairs will:
     a. attempt to move the participant to another workshop or
     b. provide a credit for a subsequent year's workshop or
     c. provide a partial or full refund of the workshop fee.
     Actions 3b and 3c will require a written note, documenting the grievance, for record keeping purposes. The note need not be signed by the grieved individual.
If the grievance concerns SVC-CAMFT’s CE program, in a specific regard, one of the Program Co-Chairs will attempt to arbitrate.