10/15/2014

CACREP and its affiliate CORE Move Forward with Accreditation Reviews for Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Programs

For immediate release – October 15, 2014

CACREP and its affiliate CORE are in the final phases of completing the first round of reviews of CORE-accredited programs seeking to become dually accredited Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling and Clinical Mental Health Counseling programs. These programs will become the first in the nation to successfully demonstrate compliance with both the newly implemented Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Standards, as well as CACREP’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Standards. The conversion process, to date, has only been made available to rehabilitation counseling programs that are currently CORE-accredited and already include a clinical practice component. Due to the success of this offering, CACREP and its affiliate CORE have begun working on jointly administered accreditation processes for programs developing programs that will focus on educating students from both clinical rehabilitation counseling and clinical mental health counseling perspectives.

In addition to the conversion reviews, CACREP and its affiliate CORE completed a board member selection process that required each respective board to nominate applicants for the other’s governing body to ensure consistency in reviews and decision-making processes for the dually accredited programs. Joining the CACREP Board on July 1, 2014 was Dr. Tyra Turner Whitaker and joining the CORE Board on July 1, 2014 was Dr. Lisa Lopez Levers.

The primary goal of the joint work undertaken by CACREP and its affiliate CORE continues to be the development of a single accreditation process for the counseling profession that ensures graduates enter the field as highly knowledgeable and ethically competent counseling practitioners who can work with clients’ life challenges from developmentally and clinically appropriate perspectives, including disability, because the prevalence of disability increases with age across the lifespan and increases at an accelerated rate among the elderly.

Please visit the CORE and CACREP websites at www.core-rehab.org and www.cacrep.org to obtain the most updated information.

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