Fall 2014 CACREP Connection

Council for Accreditation and Counseling

 

Exciting Happenings—On-going and Planned

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings colleagues! I trust that the new academic year is off to a good start for you with new faces in the classroom, exciting things planned for your programs, and a readiness to tackle the challenges that this year will bring. Seems to me this is a good time to share with you the exciting things going on with CACREP.

Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling: CACREP and its corporate affiliate CORE have begun reviewing CORE-accredited programs seeking dual accreditation as Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling programs under the conversion policy. In this two-step process, CORE, under its license to implement CACREP’s Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling standards, conducts the review of this specialization and CACREP conducts the review for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling specialization standards. The focus of Phase I is the conversion process for existing programs that already have both rehabilitation and clinical mental health components. Now we move into Phase II which will focus on newly developed programs. The application and decision-making processes will be released shortly. The CEOs and elected leaders of CACREP and CORE continue to meet with counselor educators at their respective conferences to educate about the joint accreditation process and to address any questions or accreditation issues of concern to counselor education programs.

Growth in applications: The recognition of CACREP as the standard for counselor preparation by federal agencies has signaled loudly and clearly that the opportunities available to CACREP-graduates – the future practitioners – only grows exponentially. This signal is being heeded by programs that want to ensure a place for their graduates. This is evident by the number of new institutions (39 at mid-year) seeking CACREP accreditation for their programs. This growth began last year and has leapfrogged this year and projects to be an upward trend. This capacity building of rigorously trained counselors will only serve to strengthen the counseling profession as well as raise the stature of counselors among the mental health service-providing community

Organizational partners: As a leader in the counseling profession through accreditation, CACREP partners with organizations who share the vision of strengthening and unifying the counseling profession, while recognizing that the mission of each partner may be very different. CACREP continues to talk with and engage in collaborative activities with the following counseling organizations:

  • ACA In multiple recent public comments ACA has recognized CACREP as the accrediting agency for the counseling profession. While our respective constituents may be different, as leader organizations in the same profession there is overlap and synergy in what we do. Together we must set the parameters for the counseling profession.
  • ACES The association that represents counselor educators, has in a position statement acknowledged CACREP as the gold standard for counselor preparation which they have shared publicly in multiple venues.
  • NBCC The counseling profession’s certification agency, it is one of CACREP’s longest and strongest supporters. Counselor preparation by CACREP standards is a prerequisite for many NBCC-funded initiatives. In their own programs and scholarships available to students NBCC has made enrollment in a CACREP program an eligibility criterion. NBCC has also made competitive grants available to programs seeking CACREP accreditation and has received an overwhelming number of applications.
  • Chi Sigma Iota The academic and professional academic honor society, promotes excellence in all facets of the counseling profession. Among its initiatives this year is a joint essay contest with CACREP on the topic of professional identity.

Warm Regards,

Sylvia Fernandez,

CACREP Chair

Fall 2014

IN THIS ISSUE…

Chair’s Report

Accreditation Decisions

Policy Updates

News

Board Updates

IRCEP News

We Want To Hear From You…

ACCREDITATION DECISIONS

The CACREP Board met in July 2014 in Alexandria, VA.

read_more

Become a fan of CACREP on Facebook! We can reach a wide audience quickly with important updates on CACREP and other counselor education matters. Recent facebook posts have focused on the TriCare recommendation and notice of training sessions.

facebook_icon

Accreditation Decisions

The CACREP Board met in July 2014 in Alexandria, VA.. Accreditation Decisions rendered at that meeting>>

POLICY UPDATES

Program Liaison Job Description

A revised Program Liaison Job Description was adopted by the Board in July. It specifies that CACREP prefers that the Program Liaison be a core faculty member in the counseling program.

Modification to Site Team Selection Process

CACREP has made slight modifications to the Site Team Selection Process to ensure an efficient rotation of team chairs and team members and that new members have an opportunity to serve. Prior to the modifications, programs would work from a list of potential team members to identify and indicate preferred team members and potential visitors for which there were conflicts of interest. Under the current process programs will no longer identify preferred visitors. Program representatives, however, will continue to review lists of potential team members to identify and indicate all potential visitors to exclude due to conflicts of interest. The CACREP staff will then assemble a team out of the team members for whom no conflicts of interest were identified. A conflict of Interest is defined in CACREP Integrity of Process Policy #4 – Conflict of Interest Policy for CACREP Team Members as “a circumstance in which an individual’s capacity to make an impartial or unbiased accreditation decision may be affected because of prior, current, or anticipated instructional affiliation(s), other significant relationship(s) or association(s) with the institution under review.”

Definition of Core Faculty

The Board adopted a definition of a core faculty member as one who is employed by the institution and holds a full-time academic appointment in the counselor education program for at least the current academic year. Faculty members may be designated as core faculty in only one institution, regardless of how many other institutions in which they teach classes.

CACREP Involved in White House Focus on School Counseling

On July 28, 2014, the White House and the Harvard Graduate School of Education convened a meeting in Boston to advance the White House College Opportunity Agenda by strengthening school counseling’s role in promoting greater access to post-secondary opportunities for all students. Heading the agenda for this meeting was the following quote from First Lady Michelle Obama:

“School counseling should not be an extra or a luxury just for school systems that can afford it. School counseling is a necessity to ensure that all our young people get the education they need to succeed in today’s economy.”

Carol Bobby, CACREP’s President and CEO, was invited to this one-day only meeting and has subsequently shared the call for increased pre-service education on college access and career readiness issues with the 2016 Standards Revision Committee. As a follow-up to the Boston meeting, CACREP has committed to participate in additional meetings that focus on what school counselors need to know and do to advance the White House focus on students’ readiness for and access to post-secondary opportunities

2014-2015 Leadership Essay Contest: Sponsored by Chi Sigma Iota and CACREP

Professional Identity: Challenges and Possible Solutions

This year, CSI and CACREP are sponsoring a joint essay contest to promote a strong professional counselor identity. CSI members are invited to submit an essay on this topic in one of two membership categories: Entry-Level Students and Doctoral Students/Professional Counselors/Counselor Educators. The first place winner in each category will receive $500, a one-year membership renewal in CSI, and publication of the essay in the CSI Exemplar, the CACREP Connection newsletter, and at csi-net.org! Prizes will also be awarded for second and third place winners within each membership category.

To read about the contest and submit an essay, go to http://www.csi-net.org/?Essay_Contest. The deadline to enter is November 15, 2014.

Research Proposal Funded

Congratulations to researchers Julia Chibbaro (principal researcher), Michael Keim, Julia Whisenhunt, Susan Boes, & Caroline Perjessy on CACREP’s funding of their proposal: Clinical Supervisors’ Assessment of Clinical Employability and its Relationship to CACREP Skills, Dispositions, and Knowledge. Look for the next RFP announcement in Spring 2015.

CACREP Seeks 2015 CRIGS Fellows

The deadline for the 2015 application is November 15. This year’s CRIGS fellows were Ian Turner Butterbaugh, a doctoral student at the University of Mississippi, and Amy Williams, a doctoral student at the College of William and Mary. As their term ends at the close of the calendar year, CACREP is seeking two new CRIGS research Fellows for 2015.

HRSA Grant Recipients

Congratulations to Delta State University, Ohio University and Plymouth State University who notified us they received the Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training grant. These three programs will receive a combined total of over 2.8 million dollars over a three-year period. Wow! Their CACREP accreditation was a factor in the application and we are thrilled for them. Look for upcoming HRSA grant opportunities in Spring 2015.

IRCEP

BOARD UPDATES

Board Openings

Applications are now being accepted for two Counselor Educator positions on the CACREP Board beginning July 1, 2015. The deadline is October 30. Application materials can be found here.

IRCEP News

In July 2014, the CACREP Board affirmed the IRCEP Steering Committee’s decision that the following counsellor education programs be added to the Registry of Approved Programs for the full seven-year cycle:

TCA College (Singapore)

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling
  • Master of Arts in Counseling

The South African College of Applied Psychology

  • Higher Certificate Counselling and Communication Skills
  • Advanced Certificate Counselling and Communication Skills
  • Diploma in Cousnselling and Communication Skills
  • Bachelor of Applied Social Science (Counselling focus)

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU…

If any students in CACREP-accredited programs have completed their internship experiences outside of the US, we would like to hear about it, either from the students, their faculty or both. Sharing your experiences can help others who are interested in a global internship experience. Please contact Jenny at [email protected].