Certification/Licensure - CBC Update: June 1, 2010 - Press Release |
| Posted by Rhonda Messamore (rmessamore) on Jun 03 2010 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SACRAMENTO, California (May 28, 2010) - "This is truly a professional community effort that includes treatment providers, AOD counselors, licensed professionals and educators," explains Bob Tyler, "all working together to protect the consumer, increase standards, and keep certification options available and the costs down for California alcohol and other drug counselors."
Tyler, immediate past president of California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC), has been immersed in this collaborative effort since its inception, and was commenting on the progress of the effort to further professionalize the field of alcohol and other drug (AOD) counselors in California, without destroying the current system of counselor certification that has been working well for over 20 years.
This collaborative effort was started by CAADAC, Breining Institute and California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR) - collectively known as the "CBC" - in an effort to combat a recent State proposal to comprehensively overhaul the existing AOD counselor certification laws. CAARR, Breining and CAADAC has each invested over twenty years and significant monies in the development and operation of their respective comprehensive training and certification systems.
The State proposal, sponsored by the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP), would have dramatically increased the cost of AOD counselor certification, eliminated the existing certification structure operated by private agencies, and moved the entire certification process to ADP at significant cost that would, by the State's own estimates, have required numerous new State employee positions and millions of dollars to get started.
The ADP proposal, contained within Senate Bill 707, died in the Legislature earlier this year largely due to the high cost to the State of it provisions. ADP is renewing its proposal, however, and recently began circulating a similar version of its unnecessarily expensive and burdensome proposal that still has virtually no support within the AOD treatment community.
"The ADP proposal will unnecessarily inflate a government agency, at great expense, and tasks it with the job of recreating from the ground up a totally new system which private agencies have been providing quite well for many years," explains Susan Blacksher, Executive Director of CAARR. "The current system of AOD counselor certification is working, and utilizes the many years experience of each of the State-approved and nationally-accredited certifying organizations." She adds, "The CBC proposal utilizes the current system and seeks to improve it by giving ADP much more authority to regulate and enforce the provisions of the system."
The CBC effort has sought out and received input on its proposal from treatment providers, counselors, and educators, and has incorporated provisions that increase consumer protections and give greater oversight and enforcement authority to ADP. A recent meeting of the CBC and a broad range of AOD treatment stakeholders resulted in very constructive and significant amendments to the proposal, and CBC has incorporated those suggested changes into the most recent version of the proposal. To view the most recent proposal click here.
"As educators, we are very much in favor of increasing the educational and professional standards for AOD counselor certification," says Kathy L. Christopher, Dean of Academic Affairs for Breining Institute. "At the same time, we need to make certain that there are sufficient safeguards to maintain the availability of qualified counselors to provide necessary services to clients, and we believe that this CBC proposal addresses both concerns."
Christopher was referring to the grandparenting provisions included in the CBC proposal, providing the opportunity to all counselors certified by an existing ADP-approved certification agency to become certified by the State with no additional requirements. Professionals with advanced certifications from the ADP-approved agencies will also be considered for licensure under this proposal.
The amended CBC proposal is now available, and the CBC is inviting follow-up comments to the proposal. Comments may be offered individually or jointly to collaborating organizations by using the following contact information:
California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR)
E-mail: caarr@caarr.org
Breining Institute
E-mail: college@breining.edu
California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC)
E-mail: counselors@caadac.org
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Last changed: Jun 03 2010 at 4:46 PM
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