Proposal to unify counselor certification under review at ICRC and NAADAC/NCC: membership organizations also explore merger.(Association for Addiction Professionals)(National Certification Commission)(International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium)

The plan to unify addiction counselor certification took another step forward April 12 with the release of a proposal for collaboration by the two main credentialing bodies --the National Certification Commission (NCC) of NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals and the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium (ICRC) and its membership organization, the Society of Credentialed Addiction Professionals (S.CAP).

The proposal outlines a far-reaching collaboration which holds much promise for the substance abuse treatment field. Due to the emphasis on comorbidity with mental health and "no wrong door" to treatment--meaning one counselor treating both mental health and substance abuse--both NAADAC and ICRC felt it was time to consider joining forces against threats from outside the substance abuse treatment field rather than compete against one another.

Under the new joined counseling credential, NAADAC's certification commission would no longer be part of NAADAC, explains Bill Cote, chair of the NCC. "ICRC and NCC would cease to exist." Instead, there would be a new credentialing body. "What's being proposed is there would be one organization that …