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CAPS receives accreditation

Counseling and Psychological Services recently received accreditation status from the International Association of Counseling Services, Inc.

Brad Compliment, who has been the director of CAPS since 2008, said the process of getting the center accredited took a few years.

“It was always my intention to move toward accreditation,” Compliment said. “The process of accreditation takes about two years because we have to do a self-report and send that to the organization.”

Compliment said he believes getting the accreditation, which joins the center’s doctoral internship program accredited by the American Psychological Association, will lay down the groundwork for more things to come.

“It gives us a foundation on which to base requests we might have or even the university to come to a conclusion that they need more mental health services on campus,” he said.

CAPS offers individual and group counseling for students to talk to a mental health professional about any problems they may have.

Compliment said a part of the accreditation process involved professionals’ visiting campus to observe the relationship between the university and the counseling center, the counseling services function, outreach programs, the number of staffing and the ethical standards of the staff.

“They not only interviewed administration, faculty and staff but also students for them to get a good sense of who we are,” he said.

Even though CAPS has earned accreditation, the team believes that there is still room for improvement, Compliment said.

“With the accreditation, [the IACS] would hope that the center has the backing of the university and through staffing and support to actually do our program events,” Compliment said. “One of the things that they pointed out to us was the need to work on getting a better commitment in terms of financial growth, growth for programming and staffing.”

Compliment said that approximately 1,600 students attended individual counseling sessions last year, which is average for on-campus counseling services across the country.

“If we increase resources, we can certainly see more students, and there is a need to see more students for sure,” he said.

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