Central Texas College ( CTC) recently announced its Mental Health Services program has again been designated as an Approved Education Provider for the mental health entity of the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC), the Association for Addiction Professionals. The status identifies the CTC program as meeting nationally approved standards of education developed for the addiction and substance use disorders counseling profession. NAADAC represents the professional interests of more than 100,000 addiction counselors, educators and other addiction-focused health care professionals in the United States, Canada and abroad.
Being an approved education provider indicates CTC’s Mental Health Services program has been inspected by a premier global organization of nationally-certified counselors and deemed as administrating a first-rate program. It also means CTC can issue continuing education credits to community health care professionals needing to maintain their credentials.
“Program participants are now assured any continuing education credits they receive through CTC will be accepted toward national credentialing by the NAADAC Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals and by many of the individual state licensing and certification bodies in the addiction and related professions,” said Tammy Samarripa, chairperson of the CTC Department of Health Sciences. “Our approved status also signifies we have voluntarily opened our educational programs to examination by an outside organization to ensure licensed professionals seeking certification are provided a consistent, reliable and quality learning experience.”
Many students in the CTC program are seeking to maintain licensure and work for agencies that provide chemical dependency counseling or work in the juvenile justice system, residential treatment settings, community based after-school programs and in the public schools as teachers’ aides. Their jobs range from licensed chemical dependency counselors, social workers, professional counselors and marriage and family therapists.
“As a NAADAC-approved education provider, our licensed professionals can gain a leg up in career advancements,” said Samarripa. “Approvals and recognition from state and national entities is important for maintaining the quality education within all of our health care fields and giving any of our students an advantage when either attaining recertification or starting a career.”
CTC’s Mental Health Services program includes a variety of associate degree and certificate offerings in areas including at-risk youth specialization, community health work, chemical dependency counseling, chemical dependency specialization, substance abuse prevention specialist, basic mental health profession and social work specialization.