Advancing Professional Development in the Addiction Workforce

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Substance Abuse Programs for Teens Lacking in U.S.

Few substance abuse programs in the U.S. offer high-quality treatment designed specifically for adolescents, a new study finds.

Of the more than 700 treatment programs the study surveyed, less than one-third had specialized services for teenagers — with some excluding underage patients altogether and others integrating them with adult patients.

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What is Recovery?

An essay on the subject of “What is Recovery” raises, for me, the question of what is Addiction. Since everyone of us has an idea, our own idea, of what Addiction is, we'll also have our own answer to “What is Recovery?”

Since we don’t have agreement in our field on what Addiction is, I doubt that we can come up with an easy agreement on what recovery is. I could just tell you my definition of both but my goal is not for us to have a debate over which we can come to a resolution. My goal is that we all look at ourselves and how we got to this question. It may be, that after examining ourselves, we may choose to change the question we ask.

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Advancing Professional Development in the Addiction Workforce

Written by Jeff Wilbee, CAE

Wednesday, 04 February 2009 03:23

According to SAMHSA Director, Dr. Westley Clark, the success of addiction programs depends upon the quantity and quality of the workforce. Workforce development needs to be one of the primary goals of the field.

Our clients are presenting with far more complexities and acuity of needs than in past years. Or, maybe we have become more competent in acknowledging the underlying issues of substance abuse. For example, we have become far more aware, through research and our daily experiences of the prevalence of co-occurring disorders and of the need for a high percentage of our clients to receive a more integrated clinical approach. This obviously then requires a more concerted effort in ensuring the competencies of our mental health and addiction practitioners. To meet this need, IC&RC has successfully developed and implemented a co-occurring certification at the Masters and level. IC&RC member boards have implemented this product and a number of others, including my own in Canada, indicating plans to bring it into their jurisdictions.

Any enterprise is only as good as its products and services. IC&RC continues to maintain its high standards and has recently upgraded all of its certification products. One of the newer products is the criminal justice credential. Substance abuse is a contributing factor in many crimes, resulting in far too many of our citizens finding themselves behind bars. This product cannot fully solve the problem, but it is a valuable tool in assuring there are professionals in the addiction workforce with competencies in treating individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

The IC&RC fully recognizes that the problem we battle is no respecter of social standing or of culture. Therefore, IC&RC’s counselor certification examination is available in English, Spanish, French, Swedish and Icelandic. We are equally conscious that this is a worldwide challenge requiring a global solution. To this end, in my capacity as President over the past few months, I have visited the United Kingdom twice and was an attending delegate at Beyond 2008. This summit, with more than 300 representatives from non-government organizations (NGO) from across the world, arrived at a consensus on three resolutions. Within those resolutions are three phrases calling for workforce and professional development. IC&RC’s strategic plan calls for further advancement beyond our North American shores.

I am looking forward to a trip to Peru in February for the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities conference. We need to learn from each other and I expect that this will be an opportunity to do so for IC&RC as well as for me personally. We have also set up a Task Force to consider the particular struggles of our Native/First Nations peoples. The report is expected mid-2009.

The real strength and foundation of any successful NGO is its volunteers. At our annual meeting in San Diego in October we honored Marolon Mangham of Louisiana, for her many years of service, and in many ways for being the conscience of the consortium. Having experienced first hand the destruction of Katrina and the challenges it brought to clients and certified professionals, she spearheaded a Disaster Relief Plan for Louisiana, as well as IC&RC’s international plan.
Looking to the future, we will continue to work with our colleagues in the third sector and in government to reduce the misery of addiction and mental illness.

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