First and foremost, getting a CAC prepares you to work in the addiction treatment field. In this field there’s a wide range of career paths which you can choose, for example, working specifically with women, men, the LGBTQ community or adolescents and the type of setting you want to work in, from intensive residential to outpatient to community-based services. No matter what the setting or type of treatment, your CAC credential prepares you to work effectively with people struggling with addiction.
What’s new in the 21st century is the growing awareness of how important it is in many, many work-settings to have CAC’s on the staff who understand and know how to treat addiction. In careers from education to business to social services to criminal justice to primary medical care to mental health treatment, there is an urgent need for professionals who are crossed trained in addiction treatment.
It really comes down to this, if you’re working with people in any kind of service setting, then a significant percentage of the people you are working with will be experiencing substance use disorder issues. It is the failure to recognize and treat these issues which often results in poor treatment outcomes. As examples of careers where are having a CAC is now considered to be essential let’s begin with the mental health field.
Mental Health
Traditionally, the training mental health professionals receive around addiction is minimal. In today’s world, as a result of research identifying co-occurring disorders, it is now viewed as a necessity for a mental health therapist to have training and become certified as an addiction counselor. The future of employment in both the addiction and the mental health world is the cross trained professional. So whether you’re a mental health technician or caseworker or therapist, obtaining your CAC I, II, III, LAC is an important part of your career preparation and will open many employment opportunities for you in the future.
Criminal Justice
For those students looking to pursue a career in the criminal justice system as a parole or probation officer it is essential that you become trained as a certified addiction counselor. The criminal justice system is by far the number one referral source for people into addiction treatment settings. Understanding addiction and recovery is needed to make effective referrals to treatment and follow up those services which is crucial in breaking the cycle of substance abuse and criminality.
Social Work
Many people choose a career path as a social worker are unsure exactly what direction that career will take them. No matter where in the field of social work you find your niche you will be working with people and when you’re working with people understanding substance use disorders is critical in providing effective services. An example is child protection services where we know that substance abuse is involved in 80% of our child abuse and neglect cases. If you want to help children and families, then understanding addiction is essential in helping those families heal and recover.
Education
Education is another gigantic career field where there is real need for professionals with in that field to understand the impact of substance use disorders on their students. Whether it is with middle school, high school or college students, we see how destructive addiction is in the lives of so many young people and how it destroys their future. Many schools throughout Colorado have ‘Crisis intervention Specialist’ on staff to address the many needs of students, and addiction issues are often at the top of the list.
Business and High-Tech
The world of business, especially in the high-tech industry has changed dramatically over the last 10 to 20 years. Now what is most important particularly in the high-tech industry is human resources. It’s the employees and their skills that they bring which make or break the business. That’s why many companies now offer unlimited vacation time and tons of benefits, including clinical services, in order to keep a valuable employee. Your CAC training will prepare you to treat substance use disorders and support recovery along with all the other life and mental health issues HR professionals’ address.
Therapists
The same is true for therapists in private practice; adding a CAC or LAC to your set of skills and credentials benefits your clients and expands your practice while integrating co-occurring treatment.
Healthcare
Finally, in the traditional medical field, there is more and more awareness and now demand for the expertise of the addiction counselor to work alongside other healthcare professionals in providing effective healthcare. The deadly opiate epidemic, where prescription Vicodin collides with Heroin cut with street fentanyl and our first responders, law enforcement officers, ER staff and Doctors are completely overwhelmed, demonstrates the urgent need for more training/education in the chronic brain disease of addiction for all these different professions. Addiction professionals must lead this effort.
Michael Connelly
A CAC III since 1980 and ADAD/OBH trainer since 1982, Michael contributed to shaping the culture of CAC training and treatment in Colorado. He received his Master’s in Educational Psychology the University of Colorado in 1995 and his LAC in 2004. Combining his 20 years of professional working experience with his education and his personal experience of being in long term recovery from addiction led him to open Odyssey Training Center in 1999. Michael believes that addiction counseling training must be taught from the “inside out”. That means combining current academic/scientific research of addiction with genuine compassion for people struggling with their addiction. All of Odyssey’s faculty are OBH approved, are active counselors with at least a decade of field experience, years of training experience and many life experiences. Odyssey’s mission is to give our students the most current and accurate information about addiction and the understanding of how to apply that knowledge in helping each client take the first step toward their recovery.
Odyssey offers both online/hybrid and onsite CAC classes for treatment programs throughout Colorado. If your clinic or organization is interested in onsite CAC training, please contact Michael at mconnelly@odysseycenter.