What to Look for in a Substance Abuse Counselor

Counselors may also need to help clients to identify and to mitigate possible relapse triggers, such as stress, depression and social isolation. Barriers to receiving care in the U.S. can be high—but so can the toll on those not receiving vital treatment. Emergency department visits for alcohol use disorders and SUDs rose by 30 percent on average between 2014 and 2018 in the U.S. while SUDS-related hospitalizations climbed by 57 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. HHS, through SAMHSA, has announced notices of funding opportunities for grant programs addressing behavioral health to beat the overdose epidemic and tackle the mental health crisis.

For example, California requires counselors to complete a minimum of 3,000 supervised hours, over a minimum of two years, before they can apply to become a licensed professional clinical counselor. The number of supervised training hours that counselors need to complete varies by state. As such, prospective substance abuse counselors will want to research their states’ licensing procedures.

Support groups and self-care strategies

Changes in brain chemistry may cause some with SUDs to act out of character by lying, stealing, or showing aggression—actions that can further alienate individuals from loved ones while reinforcing stigmas around substance abuse. A career as a substance abuse counselor requires compassion, empathy and determination. If you’re interested in learning more about substance abuse and substance abuse counseling addiction counseling, explore Wake Forest University’s online Master of Arts in Counseling program and discover how you can help people in your community heal and recover from addiction. A substance abuse counselor plays an active role in a patient’s recovery from beginning to end. They work with doctors and other health professionals to create an addiction treatment plan.

• Substance abuse counselors are experts in the impacts of addiction and substance abuse as well as the mental and physical treatments for these issues.
• Continued education and workforce development are also reflected in the number of providers who have certification or licensure.
• The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content about the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes.
• While AA and NA may be best known, an internet search for “recovery support groups near me” may give you additional choices.

Forty-six percent of those surveyed by SAMSHA said they did not pursue treatment out of worry over what others might think or say. SAMHSA Offices and Centers provide national leadership to advance the agency’s mission and improve the behavioral health of the nation. Learn more on how disaster behavioral health recognizes the unique ways support should be provided to communities immediately after a disaster. April is Alcohol Awareness Month—a time to raise awareness and understanding of alcohol use and misuse.

Substance Abuse Education

We may ask for your zip code or other pertinent geographic information in order to track calls being routed to other offices or to accurately identify the local resources appropriate to your needs. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the National Institutes of Health (T32-DA007233) while the author was a postdoctoral fellow at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. Opinions are those of the author and do not represent the official views of NIH or NDRI. Awards from the National Institute on Drug Abuse supported the data analysis and manuscript preparation (U10 DA013036; K23 DA021225). Stigmas also play heavily into racial inequities when it comes to treatment.

However, addiction counselors help people manage and overcome other types of addictions as well, such as gambling addiction. There exists a troublesome gap between addiction science and the substance use disorder (SUD) treatment https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/benzodiazepine-withdrawal-symptoms-timeline-and-treatment/ that is available to the public [1,2,3]. The substance abuse treatment field has been criticized for failing to offer appealing treatment options [1] and for continuing to use unproven or even discredited practices [4].