Texas—and the country—face a two-fold problem: an exploding mental health and substance abuse crisis and a dire shortage of professional social workers to address those issues. Yet rather than make it easier for qualified applicants to obtain social work licenses and start helping people, Texas is doing the opposite. https://ij.org/case/texas-fresh-start-social-worker/ In 2019, the state passed a lifetime ban prohibiting anyone with certain convictions from ever becoming a social worker. It’s a harsh solution to a non-existent problem. Before 2019, licensing authorities could already deny licenses when a criminal history made someone unsuitable to treat patients. But under the new law, even people who have turned their lives around after a decades-old conviction are shut out. And that’s why Katherin Youniacutt and Tammy Thompson, two Texas grandmothers denied the right to work under the new legislation, have joined up with the Institute for Justice to fight back against this unconstitutional ban.