Offering professional certification options for addiction counselors has been the priority of California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC), California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR), and Breining Institute for over 20 years.

Facing a comprehensive and unnecessarily expensive overhaul of the counselor certification system by the State of California, these three agencies have jointly developed an alternative proposal to keep the certification options available - and the costs down -
for California addiction professionals, and which
incorporates increased protections for the consumer.

California Counselor Certification / Licensure Proposal

CBC proposes alternate plan for counselor Certification and Licensure

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 (ADP) serves as the centralized oversight agency that enforces the certification laws and approves the certification agencies.
Before being approved as a certification agency by ADP, each certifying organization was required to successfully earn national accreditation through a comprehensive review, including psychometric evaluation of their respective testing procedures.

However, ADP proposed in Senate Bill 707 last year a comprehensive overhaul of the AOD counselor certification laws, that would have dramatically increased the cost of certification, eliminated the existing certification structure, moved the entire certification process to the ADP, and that would, by the State's own estimates, have required more than 18 new State employee positions and over$2 million to get started.

"The current system is working, and utilizes the many years experience of each of the State approved and nationally-accredited 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. The State proposal would have added significant additional cost to the counselor and, ultimately, to the consumer."
Facing the potential abolishment of the existing system, CAARR joined in a collaborative effort with California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC) and Breining Institute, and together these three organizations - known by the shorthand "CBC" for CAARR, Breining and CAADAC, which have each invested over twenty years and significant monies in the development and operation of comprehensive training and certification systems - developed an alternative certification and licensure proposal that keeps the essential existing structure in place, maintains the options for certification and the costs down for the AOD counselor, increases consumer protection provisions, and provides more oversight authority to the State ADP.

"We have solicited and received input to this proposal from ADP," said Warren Daniels III, former president of CAADAC and current Chair of its foundation, the California Foundation for the Advancement of Addiction Professionals. "ADP has provided important contributions that have been incorporated into this proposal, and we appreciate the time and effort that ADP 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 ADP-approved certification agency - including CAADAC, CAARR and Breining - 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.

"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. Consumer protection is of primary importance, and this proposal strengthens consumer safeguards without unnecessarily increasing the cost of certification and putting good counselors out of work."

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 Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR)
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Breining Institute
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California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC)
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