CAADAC Announces Support for Coalition Bill |
| Posted by Rhonda Messamore (rmessamore) on Apr 23 2010 |
SACRAMENTO, California (April 12, 2010) - California law established in 2005 a uniform
set of standards, specified in State Regulations, for the certification of alcohol and
other drug (AOD) counselors working in State-licensed facilities. The California Department
of Alcohol and Drug Programs (DADP) serves as the centralized oversight agency
that enforces the certification laws and approves the certification agencies. Before being
approved as a certification agency by DADP, each certifying organization was required
to successfully earn national accreditation through a comprehensive review, including
psychometric evaluation of their respective testing procedures.
CAADAC sponsored legislation in 2007 that would license counselors who were not
covered by the state’s certification mandate. This legislation was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger who directed the DADP to develop legislation that would cover the entire
workforce. The DADP sponsored legislation (Senate Bill 707) to create a new licensing
and certification system that would have required more than 18 new State employee
positions and over $2 million to implement. This measure failed to pass the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
CAADAC began working with The Breining Institute and the California Association of
Addiction Recovery Resources CAARR to develop alternative language that could utilize
existing certifying systems while preserving the state‘s ability to validate these processes
and protect consumers. “We wanted to take Senate Bill 707’s high levels of consumer
protection and make them work in a practical sense and in a way that would not burden
the state’s budget in these financially critical times,” said Warren Daniels, former president
of CAADAC and current Chair of its foundation, the California Foundation for the
Advancement of Addiction Professionals.
The three organizations, representing over 75% of currently certified counselors, met for
several months and concluded that a compromise plan that uses existing certifying organizations
to prepare applicants, teamed with the state‘s power to enforce high levels of
standards for the profession would be the solution. "The current system is working, and
utilizes the many years experience of each of the State approved and nationallyaccredited
certifying organizations," explains Susan Blacksher, Executive Director of the
California Association for Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR). "It just doesn't
make sense, especially in these economic times, for the State to reinvent what the private
agencies have been doing quite well for many years.
Each of the three organizations representing the “CBC” (CAADAC, Breining and
CAARR) have each invested over twenty years in the development and operation of
comprehensive training and certification systems. Together they have developed an alternative
certification and licensure proposal that builds on the existing structure while increasing consumer protection
provisions and providing more oversight authority to the DADP.
"We have solicited and received input to this proposal from the DADP," said Daniels.
"The DADP has provided important contributions that have been incorporated into this
proposal, and we appreciate the time and effort that the DADP staff have devoted to the
components of this proposal, especially those that focus on consumer protection."
Fair grandparenting provisions are also included in the CBC proposal, providing the opportunity
to all counselors certified by an existing DADP-approved certification agency -
including CAADAC, CAARR and Breining - to become certified by the State with no
additional requirements. Professionals with advanced certifications, including the CADC
II, will be grandparented at the licensure level under this proposal.
"This proposal takes advantage of the many years of experience of the existing certifying
organizations, gives the State even stronger oversight and enforcement authority over the
certification process without dramatically increasing the cost of certification to the AOD
counselor, and helps establish a State licensed AOD counselor authority that will help
professionalize and regulate the private practitioner," explains Michael Breining, president
of Breining Institute.
The CBC proposal is now being made public, and the CBC is inviting comments to the
proposal.Comments may be offered individually or jointly to collaborating organizations
by using the following contact information:
California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC)
E-mail: counselors@caadac.org
To read the full proposal go to: www.caadac.org/media/CBCproposal04122010.pdf
Last changed: Apr 23 2010 at 3:08 PM
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