Recovering from substance abuse is enough of a challenge on its own without struggling to find a qualified provider.
But Clark County employers say there’s a shortage of local counselors who can help patients with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as the mental health problems that can underscore those addictions.
In an effort to ease that gap, Clark College is on its way to offering a bachelor’s degree of applied sciences in human services.
The program will expand on the college’s addiction counseling education department, where students can already earn a two-year degree allowing them to become chemical dependency counselors in Washington.
Clark County, however, is an early adopter of the state Medicaid integration, which brings together physical health, mental health and substance abuse disorders under one umbrella. That means medical providers are taking a more holistic approach to treating patients’ health problems.
Input from Daybreak Youth Services, Columbia River Mental Health Services, Lifeline Connections and other providers, suggests hiring counselors with only associate’s degrees is not enough to meet those demands.
“It’s pretty common if someone has a drug and alcohol problem, there’s some kind of mental health issue, as well,” said Tim Cook, Clark College’s vice president of instruction.
That’s the case for Daybreak Youth Services, whose Brush Prairie facility provides inpatient services for teenagers with addiction.
In many cases, the nonprofit’s patients have suffered some trauma that may be triggering their desire to abuse drugs or alcohol, Daybreak CEO Annette Klinefelter said.
“It doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Klinefelter said.
With about 80 staff working directly with patients, Klinefelter said the organization needs four or five more dually licensed providers across the company.
“We’re limited, like providers are, by our ability to provide services based on workforce barriers,” Klinefelter said.
And Daybreak isn’t the only facility in need. According to a Clark College report, there will be 145 clinician openings in the next three years in Clark County in the fields of addictions and mental health. The majority of providers — 71 percent — said they have difficulty recruiting candidates with bachelor’s degrees.
“It’s certainly something providers have been asking for for a while,” Cook said. “I don’t know that it’s flashy, but it’s really great for people in this community.”
If approved, this will be the third bachelor’s degree offered by the college. Clark College also offers bachelor’s of applied sciences in dental hygiene and applied management.
Both were developed after feedback from local employers about the need for more local training in those fields.
“The whole point of these applied degrees is we’re responding to a need that exists in our community,” Cook said. “These came up because of community demand.”
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges approved the degree program, with approval still pending from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The program is slated to launch next for the fall quarter.
