Online Addiction Treatment Degrees
Psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors are qualified to administer addiction treatment. These individuals may also manage education programs for recovering addicts as well as career help centers. This means, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists that deal with addiction treatment must obtain skills in other areas such as management and education. In addition to a bachelor's degree, these professionals may minor in education and/or management, or take additional courses throughout their chosen degree program.
Psychiatrists must hold a doctorate degree and they must complete a residency, while employers prefer to hire social workers with a master's degree. The minimum requirement for counselors is a bachelor's degree. However, addiction treatment programs require professionals with a master's degree (or higher), plus several years experience. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of quality degree programs available for aspiring addiction treatment specialists. Some programs are even available online.
Schools such as the University of Connecticut and the University of Wisconsin offer addiction treatment programs with an option to take several courses online. Schools such as California Southern University and Montana State University offer online degree programs such as addiction counseling and psychology with a focus in addiction treatment. If you are interested in locating an extensive list of online schools, rather than traditional colleges that offer addiction treatment degree programs, you should consider using trusted college ranking websites or directories. Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, and Top Online Colleges are just a few trusted options.
Once you have searched sites such as these for addiction treatment or related degree programs, jot down your selections. Although review sites and directories rarely list schools that have not been accredited by a recognized agency, you should still double check the status of your selections. Schools rarely lose accreditation, but it does happen. If you receive a degree from an online school that is not accredited, it may not be recognized by employers. In addition you may have trouble transferring credits if you decide to transfer and you will not be eligible to receive financial aid. So, it pays to double check. All you have to do is visit the official U.S. Department of Education website at ED.gov to verify accreditation status.
The top accrediting agencies for online colleges include the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), Distance Education Training Council (DETC), Council on Occupational Education (COE), Accrediting Commission for Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT), and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
Once you have selected several schools and you have verified that they have been accredited by a recognized agency, you should check the curriculum. No matter which program you choose -- addiction treatment, counseling, or psychiatry, you must complete a specific set of courses in order to graduate and become successful in this career field.
Required courses include introduction to alcohol and drug abuse counseling, counseling for alcohol and other drug addictions, abnormal psychology, social problems, dynamics of group counseling, and principles of behavioral modification and its management. Interpersonal communication is also required as well as counseling theories, and addicted family intervention. Assessing skill of alcohol and other drugs and multicultural counseling are requirements as well.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Deschene