Certification
Today’s National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping -Wilderness Counselor Certification
“Raising the Bar”, “Best Practice”, “Making the Cut”, “Quality Improvement”, are all phrases that come to mind when speaking in terms of today’s industry performance standards. The outdoor education and healthcare industry is no different, as programs and organizations that utilize the outdoor medium for teaching and counseling special needs groups continue to look for ways to enhance outcomes and manage risk. The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping, is one such organization that was founded in the early 1990’s as a result of a tragic incident in a western desert. In an atmosphere of sparse regulation and emerging, but regional standards for outdoor programs, NATWC was created to initiate a network of programs that were committed to developing a common language and a foundation for industry wide standards. It was shortly after it’s inception that NATWC became involved with The Council on Accreditation (COA), to draft standards for accreditation in Therapeutic Wilderness Camping.
The recent hearings conducted by the Committee on Education and Labor have fostered a fast and furious debate, specifically the efficacy and safety of some types of outdoor residential programs. As with any healthy debate, multiple perspectives emerge. The expected outcome for a debate is usually more informed consumers, and an enhancement of the product, process or participants. However, the outcome of this debate currently remains unresolved. There are many potential negative outcomes, including: misrepresentation of outdoor programming as unsafe, and inefficient; and the loss of consumer choice of outdoor programming as an alternative or complement to traditional education and healthcare. It would be unfortunate if a conclusion was that only federally run programs or traditional hospitals and psychiatric wards were the only safe and efficient milieu, and groups of students could no longer experience the outdoors as part of their development unless it was on the athletic field!
The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping holds the view that many positive outcomes are possible from this debate. In a recent letter to Representative George Miller, Chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, NATWC expressed support for continued oversight for the outdoor education and therapy industry. However the proposed bill on Institutional Abuse, as it stands, is not the answer. Programs must continue to work harder to insure client’s and their families’ physical and emotional safety. Programs also need to dialog around “Best Practice” to ensure that outcomes are real and sustainable. Many programs, colleges and universities, and groups such as the Outdoor Behavioral Health Care Industry Council (OBHIC) have undertaken a variety of research objectives to help the interested public understand how the outdoor education and therapy industry has historically employed program improvement initiatives.
Irregardless of these efforts by the federal government, or the industry itself, we must realize that some individual programs as well as some individual program staff, both administrative and direct care, are often not up to those standards and efficacy is often compromised as a result. It is under this premise that the issues of industry regulation,
program accreditation, and practitioner credentialing must be embraced.
Specific to regulations, many states have Residential Child Care and Mental Health Care law that is specific to Outdoor and/or Mobile Programs. These statutes must be continuously reviewed and updated as the works in progress they should be. Regulations should address any differences that may exist between the publicly and privately administered programs so that efficacy is not compromised, and cost of service is manageable. States that do not have specific regulations as such need to have good reasons why, or get with the times for the sake of safety. Many programs often serve students from another state or region. The current proposal under the Institutional Abuse Bill maintains that a program that serves an out of state youth and family must follow the regulations of the referring state as well as the home state. This sounds like common sense and a good thing to do, until one looks at how incompatible many state and regional regulations currently are. Without some compatibility analysis of these regulations, the rising cost of health care could be accelerated, and many good treatment and education alternatives may be lost.
Program or organizational accreditation is a valuable self improvement instrument that has been embraced by many in the outdoor education and therapy industry. Many agencies that work under the behavioral health care umbrella face mandatory accreditation as criteria to serve mental health clients. For many of the other private entities, accreditation is an option that may illustrate that program’s commitment to quality service. However, costs for this process is often prohibitive for some smaller programs, and is undoubtedly passed on in operating costs by those who pursue accreditation. NATWC collaborated with the Council on Accreditation, (COA) in the early 1990’s to create a separate set of standards for Therapeutic Camping. The Association for Experiential Education, (AEE), the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, (CARF), and the Joint Council on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, (JCAHO), also offer standards for outdoor education and therapy entities.
Practitioner credentialing, including college or university curriculums specific to outdoor education and therapy; state regulatory mandated training; as well as program specific staff training are all critical for a best practice foundation. Good training on an ongoing basis should include regulatory, ethical, clinical, and programming milieu considerations. Nationally, many colleges and universities have included outdoor education and therapy curriculums to their offerings.
NATWC has created the National Wilderness Counselor Certification, the only nationally recognized certification specifically for counselors in the field of wilderness therapy. It is a primary mission of NATWC to provide both the standards for best practices among wilderness counselors and the recognition they deserve as professionals in a challenging and effective field.
Outdoor residential treatment programs that serve youth and their families who are having troubles have emerged as powerful resources for transforming circumstances of potential loss in the juvenile justice/mental health systems into instances of success and turnaround. A substantial body of research exists and continues to be conducted that verifies the effectiveness of outdoor therapeutic programming. Conducting therapy in the natural environment adds features like challenge and adventure that facilitate significant personal growth and youth leadership.
The idea of certification for wilderness counseling has been argued and contemplated for a number of years within the fields of adventure therapy, wilderness programming, and experiential education. The historical headlong rush for labeled qualifications has been seen as an affront to authenticity and experientially gained expertise, the acquisition of degrees a specialization at best and an accoutrement essentially.
An intensive discussion and extended period of time for argument and reflection have been necessary and naturally appreciated in the context of integrity and process of the group — the practitioners and their constituents. A majority now exists that a standard of training, ethical behavior, and education should characterize the counselor who works with youth benefiting from outdoor therapeutic programming.
As a relatively new model for assisting youth and families, incidents of mortal events can shock an uninformed public, inciting reaction in a rush to find the culprit. When an incident has occurred at a particular program, some reports have indicted the entire industry. Since risk management studies have revealed wilderness programming as safe as high school gym class, such accusations are unfair.
No one wants accidents or incidents to occur and all want quality and competence to be at the highest. The attacks by some media sensationalize events and often make conclusions about outdoor and alternative programs based on these incidents. Although some articles do take a broader perspective and acknowledge the many successes, some popular magazines question this type of programming and conclude that they should not be utilized. Obtaining market share should not be a motivation for inaccurately depicting people engaged in effective procedures of counseling and education.
Quite commonly, the articles confuse wilderness programs with boot camp programs, failing to acknowledge that these are two different approaches for two different kinds of problem circumstances. Some of the historical incidents have occurred in programs that offer questionable training and permit poorly trained and qualified staff to deal with overwhelming issues. Others have happened despite the best efforts and intentions of quality program management. Sadly, this occurs in every helping profession, especially in times of poor funding for social services, and certainly is a risk in many activities that no one would ever ban, such as boating, skiing, football, and driving.
What are the benefits of the National Wilderness Counseling Certification?
For the counselor, certification gives recognition for the knowledge and experience that are critical to this profession. It offers increased legitimacy of therapeutic wilderness counselors as professionals and allows counselors to compare qualifications with best practices in the field, ensuring that they have all of the skills required for the job. National wilderness counselor certification maintains proof of competency regardless of the employment circumstances of counselors.
For therapeutic wilderness programs, certifications permit more accurate assessments of counselors that are being interviewed for employment in the field. The requirements also offer excellent benchmarks for assuring complete staff training. They provide a much-needed standardization of qualifications across the field. Certifying staff also boosts morale when used to help qualify promotions. Risk management is enhanced by having trained staff and that can be a helpful benefit when negotiating insurance rates.
Outcomes are often directly proportional to the therapeutic alliance created between staff and the client and their family. Having well informed, well trained staff that know how to use that training and education to foster a “Team” approach in developing and reviewing treatment plans and strategies, aids in putting clients in a physical and emotional “Safety Zone”. This in turn helps complete the full circle back to “Best Practice”.
The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping is sponsoring the certification of wilderness counselors, requiring the achievement of skills and competencies detailed in the listing for designation to one of three levels of certification;
National Wilderness Counselor, Senior Wilderness Counselor, and Master Wilderness Counselor. Certification for national wilderness counselors encompasses the highest features of professional qualifications by incorporating peer review, national examination, degree accomplishments, intern/residency requirements, and performance assessment. Successive levels of certification add to its capacity for guiding professional development and enhancing recognized competency.
The list of skills and competencies consists of a checklist that permits the determination of accomplishments. Individuals desiring to meet certification requirements can demonstrate achievement through a qualifying score on a national exam and then personally to a person authorized in the procedures for certification. Documentation of achievement including transcripts from regionally accredited colleges and universities is completed and forwarded to the certification committee of NATWC for examination. Approval or a reply that indicates needed documentation follows NATWC processing.
In the spirit of “Best Practice”, The National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping, submits that the issues of industry regulation, program accreditation, and practitioner credentialing must be embraced by vested organizations as well as individual practitioners. Those vested parties must step forward to insure that industry representatives are at the table when discussions and decisions pertinent to the industry are undertaken. The importance of marketing our successes is critical to the relative health of this industry. NATWC offers one “piece of this pie” specific to practitioner credentialing, through the National Wilderness Counselor Certification, as one step toward Best Practice.
The certification is available for your review and/or participation on a CD, and includes: certification rationale; milieu specific historical information; ethical considerations; industry research submissions; theoretical structures and philosophy papers; and the Certification Documents.
Inquiries as to the Certification CD, or membership to the National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping can be made through:
NATWC
264 Brownhill Road
Markleysburg, Pa 15459
natwc@qcol.net
724.329.1098