“California’s lax system of credentialing drug and alcohol counselors has allowed convicted sex offenders, embezzlers and people with their own substance-abuse problems to work with vulnerable clients, according to a new report from the state Senate’s oversight office.
With demand for treatment services expected to grow as the federal health care law takes effect, Monday’s report by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes found that California is virtually alone among states in not requiring criminal background checks for people registering to be substance-abuse counselors, or even asking applicants to disclose past trouble with the law.
The Senate investigation found 23 sex offenders who have been registered or certified to work as substance-abuse counselors since 2005. Those are just the counselors with unusual names who could be matched against the state’s sex-offender database; the actual total is likely much larger, the report said.
“Obviously, the main risk is that you could have someone in a counseling position who has quite a bit of control over a client,†Maia Christopher, executive director of the Oregon-based Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders, said in the report.
A “balkanized†network of seven accrediting organizations largely fails to detect such problems. Counselors jump from organization to organization to avoid scrutiny of criminal convictions or when they are in danger of missing a certification deadline, the report found.
The Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, which oversees the counseling industry, is scheduled to disappear in July and its responsibilities folded into the Department of Health Care Services. Monday’s report recommends that lawmakers consider “drastic changes†to repair the system before then, including creating a centralized database to flag people with high-risk backgrounds who seek to become counselors.
The Senate office’s investigation did not include full names. It highlighted several cases in Inland Southern California, including…”
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