The addictions treatment workforce crisis is largely due to a lack of a professional identity.
Posted on 31. Aug, 2008 by admin in General
Adopting competency development pathways will provide a professional identity for addictions treatment practitioners.
As a general rule, the addictions treatment industry does not use instructional theory to guide instructional practice. Other similar fields; such as psychology and social work, guaranty practitioner competence through accreditation standards. Because practitioners of these industries are trained through educational institutions it is reasonable to assume that education theory underlies their instructional practice.
Second, the addictions treatment industry does not provide competency development pathways. Psychology and social work both provide pathways that illustrate a step by step educational process. For these fields, education is directly tied to licensure through evaluative processes. Educational processes are loosely tied to credentialing within the United States. State regulations may prescribe the general educational areas that are required for credentialing but they do not explicitly state what must be learned.
As addictions treatment is not the direct focus or even generally required by psychology and social work accreditation standards, these individuals may be viewed as not qualified to treat addictions. A meta issue exists in that it is not clear who leads the addictions treatment industry. The truth is that the addictions treatment industry is the one industry that does not lead itself. The majority of agencies are administrated by social workers; as credentialed counselors are generally considered to not be qualified. A disconnect exists in that that social workers do not have a direct charge or mandated initiative to lead the addictions industry.
Based on this, recruiting more social workers to the field does not address the underlying concern. The concern is operationalized as a lack of defining standards or infrastructure. The infrastructure is comprised of elements that define any area of professional practice. The elements exists as grounding principles that are defined, stated, and institutionalized as a foundation to be followed by all those who work in that profession.
Counselors cannot be connected to a laissez faire system. The field of addictions treatment currently exists as an abstract set of concepts that are individually defined and interpreted.In order to be recognized as a bona fide field we must address the above outlined requisite elements.
