Demand Grandfathering Provisions for Licensed Professional Counselors

Please add grandfather in for current CRC's. THANK YOU!

The current proposal punishes the most experienced in our field who have demonstrated proficiency and are credentialed based on professional certification and licensure boards. A Masters program we took more than 30 years ago prior to CACREP should not prevent us from practicing our profession. Grandfather those of us who have proven our competence from decades of experience.

The CACREP-only use by the VA is a decision upon which many of us still ponder as to how/why. There is no research to show the CACREP counselors' merit or results over other academic credentials. Its exclusionary provisions have since gone on to serve CACREP in its attempt to duplicate that model throughout many other entities "because (even) the VA did it." Again, with no foundation in research showing better results. Within the Counseling profession, CACREP has benefitted some but at the expense of others. While CACREP wants to be seen as more inclusionary now for some students population, it continues essentially to rout out and disenfranchise those already in practice, and especially those whose academic credentials are standard with the time in which we graduated. CACREP looks at academia alone and ignores experience, certification, and licensure. How did it ever get as far as it has already?

Please include the grandfathering clause so that our clients can benefit from the broad and deep experience of professionals who graduated from programs long before CACREP existed, like myself who has 29 years of experience working with injured and disabled people.

Now is NOT the time to restrict our veterans' access to qualified providers. CACREP is a great accreditation, but not the only accreditation. There are many who are well-qualified to provide services. There needs to be a grandfathering period rather than a line drawn arbitrarily in the sand.

10 years ago Featured

I have been practicing nearly 20 years and my specialty area is traumatic brain injury but because I graduated from a CORE accredited program I cannot treat Veterans. Grandfathering is essential for service delivery needs of our much deserving Veterans.

Please change your ruling for the hiring of councelors in the VA system. This restricts so many qualified veterans, such as my daughter-in-law who is highly qualified.

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I am a Navy veteran and military spouse who recently completed a Master's program in Art Therapy & Counseling. The only school offering this specialty that was close to where my husband was stationed is not a CACREP accredited program. I pursued this course of study with the goal to continue to be of service to my fellow veterans as a mental health professional in the VA system. The requirement to attain a degree from a CACREP accredited program will prevent me from being employable in the VA system upon attaining licensure and is unduly restrictive and prejudicial towards other veterans/military spouses who were geographically limited in their choice of graduate programs due to the needs of their respective branches of service.

I am an USAF veteran with 21 years as a licensed professional counselor. I have been to CPT trainings and am trained in EMDR. When I graduated in 1991, there were no CACREP accredited programs in San Antonio. However, it seems the VA would rather hire someone with little experience and a CACREP degree than a veteran with a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling and 20+ years of experience. I do work with veterans in my private practice.

I am an Army Veteran. I have over 20 years experience as a mental health professional. I have been a Licensed Mental Health Counselor since 2000--a time when CACREP accredited universities were virtual non-existent. I have a PhD in Psychology. I have been in private practice since 2003, specializing in trauma and dissociative disorders. I worked at the VA for 6 years helping develop the Suicide Prevention Program. During my six years at the VA I was highly discriminated against due to having not graduated from a CACREP University. Repeatedly I was denied access to trainings on Evidence Based therapies--trainings that were afforded for free to social workers, psychologists and psychiatric nurses (who had only BS degrees). I was told that I was not qualified to receive the trainings. Unlike social workers, psychologists, and psychatric nurses (with BS degrees) all my clinical notes had to be reviewed, approved and co-signed by a psychiatrist--as I was told my credentials were not good enough therefore, requiring this micro-management. I was denied the ability to apply for other positions in Mental Health Services, told I did not qualified for the positions. The CACREP requirement put an end to my VA career.

I am only 1 credit short of the standards and my university went CARPET

It is important to give those who did not have the ability to meet these standards the opportunity to work with veterans, as many have more clinical experience than those who currently meet the standard. Please assist to revise the current policy to include a grandfather in period!

I totally support this. As a veteran who suffers from PTSD, having someone who can relate to you and understand the lifestyle that comes along with being in the service does make a difference. IT is an unspoken bond and know that can not be duplicated. Be looking for the ICan program that supports women veterans who suffer from PTSD and other disorders

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Addiction Counselor in Colorado. I am also an Air Force veteran of 25 years, the son of a career soldier, and the dad of a former marine. My school was not CACREP accredited, although it was aligned with the CACREP standards, so I have difficulty finding positions working with my fellow military men and their families. Remember, CACREP is an indication of a school following certain guidelines, such as the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty, not of an individual's ability. A better criteria would be successful completion of a national exam, such as the NCE, since that better indicates an individual's ability. (Oh, did I mention my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCE first time around and I personally scored 2 standard deviations above the mean? Sorry, just a little bitter.) CACREP is just bureaucratic machinations.

10 years ago Featured

I am an LPC working in a rural area where there are no approved MHP'S to serve Veterans. Local Veterans must travel looking distances to seek services at VA facilities and many are unable to do so. Please expand your services to reach out and care for those who cared for us! Thank You!!

This issue in crucial to the ethically bound mental health providers. These professionals are qualified and necessary to treat underserved veterans, whose suffering continues, because they are DENIED access to mental health treatment providers, such as Licensed Professional Counselor who were taught by brilliant psychologists-- the most educated of all the mental health providers. Most PsyD programs are 6 years post Masters programs. Many, perhaps most, but at least half of LPCs, LCPCs, LPCCs, LMHCs--all COUNSELORS-had little or no choice but to graduate from Non- CACREP accredited programs, because there WERE NOT enough CACREP Accredited schools and it was not yet a requirement to gain state licensure. We all learned that CACREP was coming to a neighborhood "near you". So graduate Counseling programs were, for the most part, CACREP compliant. They had to be in order meet eligibility for the NCE or for some states the NCMHCE. The licensed counseling profession, like all professions once were,was new. All professions in the MH field have had grandfathering. Another underserved and ever growing population- the elderly, are also denied access to excellent, high quality Licensed Professional COUNSELORS who are not Allowed to be Medicare providers. If Professional COUNSELORS took and passed necessary course work, passed National Exams and did thousands of clinical hours under a Licensed Mental Health Provider-- then gained State Licensure, they are QUALIFIED! This is not Rocket Science. It's common sense and it is correct please allow all LPCs to treat anyone who needs treatment. If CACREP is to be the accreditation body for professional counselors, then a liberal and robust Grandfathering must be put in place. Let there be Justice for All.

because CACREP is so new in so many states, requiring it means veterans seeking services, who often have serious, complicated issues to address, would be meeting with counselors who have relatively little experience. At a time when veteran suicide rates are so high, does the VA really want to restrict access to the practitioners best suited to help save lives?

I am a military veteran. I graduated with my masters degree from Webster University in mental health counseling. I am a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida. I graduated from a great program but unfortunately it was not CACrep. Please allow this. There is nothing more than providing service for other military veterans through the VA

Even though I have seen vets for 30 years, am a PhD and licensed as an LMFT in Calif and LMHC in Fl. ....They say I do not meet their criteria. My father was a POW during WWII, spent 5 years in a Japanese prison camp and I was a Viet Nam Vet Wife. Even so..I can't counsel current vets under their "standards", altho I am willing. What is wrong w/this !! I have given up....will not try to fight the system any longer.