Oregon's success in treating addicts is a lesson for KentuckyPrescription for …
Members of recovery programs, graduates and supporters listen as Patty Katz discusses her battle during an event celebrating recovery in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore. … The Courier-Journal has been investigating the state's prescription …
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Wal-Mart presents grant to program for women recovering from addictions
The mission of Off the Streets Program, Inc is to give women the opportunity to recover from alcohol and drug addiction and prostitution in a safe and healthy environment. With the increase in alcohol and drug usage and prostitution in Gaston County …
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Naomi Watts: 'My brush with death'
In 21 Grams, for which she received an Oscar nomination, she was a recovering drug addict who returns to her former ways after her husband and children are killed in a road accident. Even when she does comedy – such as Woody Allen's You Will Meet a …
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Rich Archbold: If you look hard enough, you can find optimism
A severe drug and alcohol addict, Nancy had lost her will to live until she entered the Flossie Lewis Center, a safe haven in Downtown Long Beach with a substance abuse recovery program designed to help people like Nancy. The program worked for Nancy …
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Kaufman: Mental health, drug abuse cuts are hurting community
Most of all we need the cuts in funding for mental health and substance abuse to stop. It is time to secure the financial resources to appropriately serve those in need. Joel Kaufman is CEO of The Starting Place, a nonprofit drug abuse prevention and …
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Our take: Left on the table
It could have wiped out smaller cuts in other programs, like drug treatment. Florida's uncollected debt for 2012 includes about $ 37 million in unpaid taxes, $ 31 million in overpaid unemployment benefits, $ 14 million in excessive reimbursements for …
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Ex-military dog works for Port Canaveral PD
… Afghanistan. LEFT: Lilly has her own trading cards. / Photos by Tim Shortt/FLORIDA TODAY … Veina said that with most police dogs, it is good when they find drugs because it can be taken off the streets, but with a bomb-sniffing dog, the desired …
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Question by Dan W: Can i become a councilor with a GED?
Well i am wondering if you can become a councilor for drug abuse if you only have a GED, because i was addicted to methamphetamine, marijuana, inhalants, and alcohol for about five years of my life and luckily i got myself help and have been clean for about 2 years now and i would really like to help people overcome the demons i also faced trying to become clean, any help would be wonderful. Thanks for any feed back.

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
Congratulations on having almost two years of sobriety! With regard to becoming a substance abuse counselor, I believe that most with a Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC) have a master’s degree which takes about six years of college, if attending on a full-time basis. There are different levels of training for addictions counseling, but most jobs prefer those with a master’s degree.

Please also be aware that in order to get one’s certification as a CAC (or similar credentials), the person needs A LOT of clinical experience which includes having an actual patient caseload of those with addiction.

With regard to schooling, please AVOID those private overly priced For-profit schools such as kaplan, ashworth, capella, university of phoenix, devry, ITT tech, strayer, everest, brown mackie, american public university, keiser, argosy, penn foster, ashford, grand canyon, westwood, stratford career, pima medical institute, colorado tech and others as they are merely out to “make a profit” (** and their course credits usually do NOT transfer to other schools).

These consumer sites have a lot of negative posts by former students about those for-profit schools, and please heed the students’ warnings:

– http://www.ripoffreport.com

– http://www.pissedconsumer.com

– http://www.complaintsboard.com and can search.

Please instead consider the more affordable community college and/or public/state university as long as the program is accredited within the industry.

For U.S. colleges: http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ

This site is supposed to have more info re: (regarding) getting certified in addictions counseling: http://www.naadac.org/certification and can scroll down a bit.

General career info: http://www.bls.gov/oco and can search “counselors”, “social workers” or such.

Regarding inhalants or “huffing” (fumes or chemical vapors), my friend actually has a Brain Injury from inhalant use at the age of 12, now in her 30s.

Other risks of huffing include sight loss/blindness, heart/liver/kidney damage, seizures, limb spasms, hearing loss and even death, all of which can happen after the very FIRST time of use.

For anyone, this site has more info about the dangers of huffing – National Inhalant Prevention Coalition: http://www.inhalants.org

Wishing you continued recovery and wellness and that you continue making good, HEALTHY choices in life 🙂

What do you think? Answer below!

Treatment centers lack funding to help drug addiction
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WYMT) – Officials say prescription drug abuse is leading the drug epidemic. They say treating the addiction is key, but limited funding for treating substance abuse is making that difficult. "You wouldn't believe the amount of …
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Report: Cancer Center Chief Funneled Millions To FreedomWorks
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Treatment centers lack funding to help drug addiction
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WYMT) – Officials say prescription drug abuse is leading the drug epidemic. They say treating the addiction is key, but limited funding for treating substance abuse is making that difficult. "You wouldn't believe the amount of …
Read more on WKYT

Oregon finds efforts to treat drug addicts paying off
Oregon's Medicaid program, the state-and-federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled, covers substance abuse treatment, while Kentucky, with a few exceptions, does not. Oregon is admitting more than twice as many addicts for treatment as …
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Addicts overwhelm Kentucky's drug treatment options
Reporter Laura Ungar wrote these stories while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism, which is providing partial funding for this …
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Local treatment facilities see increased demand with alcohol, prescription …
In Anne Arundel County, the number of people admitted into state-supported drug and alcohol treatment programs reached 3,570 in 2011, up from 2,824 in 2008, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “It has increased …
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Once-a-month opiate addiction treatment little-used in Maine, clinic operators say
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