Spring 2012 CACREP Connection

Council for Accreditation and Counseling

Your Excellence Is Recognized and Rewarded

Dear Colleauges,

All established professions meet certain criteria. These typically include a common body of knowledge, and enforceable ethical standards. Counseling has achieved these. The criteria also include nationally accredited preparation and training and a national examination as prerequisites for licensure. We now have licensure in all states and all states require the passage of an NBCC examination. While we have national accreditation (CACREP), it is not yet required for licensure. This is an anomaly among established helping professions such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, physical and occupational therapy, and social work, which mandate graduation from programs accredited by their specialized accrediting organizations as an eligibility requirement for taking the national examination and becoming licensed. A true measure of a profession occurs when society delegates to members of the profession exclusive authority to provide their services.As a member of the growing family of CACREP-accredited programs your commitment to excellence is to be commended. Now it is being recognized in unprecedented ways that are advancing the counseling profession. Like many emerging professions, counseling has evolved from other professions and specializations and has struggled to form a separate identity. There have been numerous attempts over the past 50 years to identify philosophies, theories, knowledge, skills and practices that are unique to counselors. However, there is always going to be overlap with our sibling helping professions such as psychology and social work. What really distinguishes a profession is legal recognition and legal authority to provide services.

This last measure is being achieved with the recognition of TRICARE and the VA of licensed counselors who graduate from CACREP-accredited programs as approved independent providers of services. It is important to note that without requiring graduation from a CACREP-accredited program it is unlikely that counselors would be recognized by the VA and TRICARE. In fact, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public, recommended requiring CACREP as the exclusive accrediting body for counselor education. In their investigations they looked at other accrediting bodies but concluded that only CACREP can ensure high standards of preparation to protect the public.

It is likely that other federal and state agencies will follow the recommendations of the IOM and the leads of the VA and TRICARE and begin recognizing licensed counselors from CACREP programs as approved, independent providers. This is wonderful news! This affords graduates of CACREP programs increased employment opportunities that counselors have never before enjoyed. Yet there are some who oppose these decisions and want to open the eligibility to anyone holding a counseling license. This is not likely to happen. Licensure requirements vary widely from state to state. Some states continue to license counselors who are not trained in counselor education programs by counselors and who do not identify themselves as counselors. This is one of the reasons that the IOM recommended requiring CACREP.

The decision to require CACREP will be repeated. It is just a matter of time before licensure boards begin requiring graduation from a CACREP-accredited program in order to sit the licensure examination. This will put counseling licensure requirements on par with the other established professions. It will also remove the main obstacle to licensure portability. Be proud that you are in a CACREP-accredited program. Your program’s commitment to excellence is being recognized and is enhancing the credibility of the counseling profession.

 

Kind Regards,

Martin Ritchie,
CACREP Chair

SPRING 2012

IN THIS ISSUE…

Chair’s Report

News

Upcoming Events

Accreditation Decisions

Policy Updates

SRC Committee Updates

Welcome Tyler Kimbel

ACCREDITATION DECISIONS

The CACREP Board of Directors met January 5-7, 2012, in Charleston, SC and rendered the accreditation decisions listed below. The next meeting of the Board of Directors is scheduled for July 2012.

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

Guiding Statement

The CACREP Board has developed a Guiding Statement for certificate/licensure only options that are housed with accredited programs information. read more >

New Vital Statistics Form

In the past, CACREP has asked programs to submit a Vital Statistics document, or CACREP Data form, that provides useful information about some of the most recent trends in CACREP-accredited counseling programs.
read more >

NBCC Scholarships Awarded

The NBCC Foundation recently selected 10 recipients for its military and rural scholarships. Recipients will be awarded scholarships of $3,000 to support their counseling education and to recognize their commitment to providing counseling services to underserved populations. read more >

Student Research Grant

Congratulations to Allison Buller! CACREP awarded Allison, who is a doctoral student at Western Michigan University, a $500 research grant in January to help support her dissertation research study, “Excellent Teaching in Counselor Education.” CACREP has an ongoing research grant program to encourage continued endeavors of students engaging in CACREP-related research. For more information about the grant program and how to apply, read more >

CACREP-CORE Merger Docs

Download a copy of the CACREP-CORE merger documents. read more >

Board Member Changes

At the Board meeting in January we said goodbye to three members: Chair Martin Ritchie, Estela Martinez Pledge, and Brent Snow. At the same meeting, we elected three new members to the board beginning their terms on July 1, 2012. J. Barry Mascari joins us as a counselor educator from Kean University of New Jersey. Jeffrey Parsons, another counselor educator teaches at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky. Chanel Tazza will be a new practitioner member. She is a licensed mental health counselor in the state of New York. read more >

Table Talk Open at ACA Conference

Friday, March 23, 2012
12pm – 2pm

For the first time at an ACA conference, CACREP’s Table Talk session will be open to everyone. Join us Friday, March 23 from noon through 2pm in Plaza A at the Hilton. CACREP Board members and staff will be on hand to answer questions.

POLICY UPDATES

New Policies Adopted in January 2012

The CACREP Board adopted three new policies in January. One applies to when conflict arise between accreditation requirements and state and local government requirements. The second and third are related to when programs outside the United States apply for accreditation. read more >

SRC COMMITTEE UPDATES

The Standards Revision Committee (SRC) has been actively working since last summer to conceptualize and create a working draft of the 2016 CACREP Standards. To date we have gathered feedback through the ACES conference last fall and from annual reports submitted to CACREP last summer by accredited programs. The SRC has met in person three times and has conducted work electronically. As we work on our first draft, we are keeping in mind our goal of simplifying, clarifying, and consolidating the existing Standards. We also are trying to ensure that the Standards promote a unified counselor identity while also recognizing the uniqueness of the specialty areas. read more >

 

CACREP Welcomes Tyler Kimbel, Director of Research & Information Services

We would like to welcome Tyler Kimbel as our newest staff member! As of January 1st, Tyler has become CACREP’s Director of Research and Information services. Tyler comes to us from Greeley, Colorado where he was working towards his doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision.

Kimbel is licensed as a school counselor in Ohio and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Northern Colorado. He has a master’s degree in school counseling from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, and his bachelor’s degree in human services from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Previously, Kimbel has worked as an instructor for undergraduate courses at YSU and UNC, where he also supervised master’s level CIT’s during practicum and internship courses. He has worked in a variety of public schools, primarily with inner-city youth, and community agencies, conducting psychological testing, program evaluations, and most recently seeing clients as a cognitive rehabilitation therapist. Kimbel was an editorial assistant for the Counselor Education & Supervision journal and was also a member of the Editorial Review Board for Professional School Counseling.

Although he has attended two CACREP-accredited programs, Tyler’s personal relationship with CACREP began in 2010 when he was hired as a Special Project Coordinator, along with Emily Goodman-Scott (Virginia Tech), to conduct a national research study on school counseling licensure, preparation, and professional trends. He and Scott have published and presented on their findings on behalf of CACREP and continue to work on related projects. Now as the Director of Research & Information Services, Tyler will be responsible for the development, oversight, and management of CACREP’s research initiative that involves the collection and analysis of information related to the accreditation of programs and best practices in counselor preparation.