I have never heard of a person with an CSAC practicing independently during my 28 years as an addiction professional in Virginia; every addiction professional with the CSAC that I know or have known always worked under the supervision of a Certified Clinical Supervisor or licensed professional, such as myself. I think that if you find a CSAC practicing independently when VA. Code states otherwise - that you as a certified or licensed professional should fulfill your ethical duty and report it for investigation instead of trying to restrict CSAC supervision to just those with the LPC, LCSW and LMFT! It appalls me when someone wants to restrict and/or advocate for "only" their credentials being able to provide a service related to the treatment of individuals with addictive disorders, while leaving out the LSATP. Why is the LSATP not mentioned in this petition, when we are the ones with the specialty training and allowed to supervise CSACs folks in private and public settings for certification? We completed those 60 hours graduate school and everything else for licensure, too whereas LPC’s have one course requirement on SUD and LCSW's have no formal training.
While, addiction professionals with the CSAC only should be supervised when practicing in public and private settings, I am not in support of this petition to restrict CSAC supervision to practice only under LPC, LCSW and LMFT's because they should NOT have a monopoly - when Virginia has LSATP's with specialization in SUD and Co-occurring disorders that are the current approved providers of supervision for certification. I think the petition should read .....can only practice in public and private entities under the supervision of an LSATP, a Certified Clinical Supervision with an CSAC and/or a national SUD credential or an LPC with an SUD credential.