The State of New Jersey is issuing temporary certifications to alcohol and drug counselor-interns so that they may provide essential mental healthcare services, and deliver those services via telehealth and telemedicine during the current public health emergency.  The Alcohol and Drug Counselor Committee of the New Jersey State Board of Marriage and Family Therapy is now issuing these certifications.

To be eligible for a temporary certification during the public health emergency, applicants must,

• Have completed a minimum of 150 of the 270 hours of approved core content education required of a CADC pursuant to N.J.A.C. 13:34C-2.3(b)(4);

• Have completed a minimum of three hundred hours (of the three thousand) of supervised work experience in alcohol and drug counseling required of a CADC pursuant to N.J.A.C. 13:34C-2.3(b)(3);

• Have attended fifteen (of the thirty) alcohol and drug abuse self-help group meetings required of a CADC pursuant to N.J.A.C. 13:34C-2.3(b)(5);

• Have a plan of supervision approved by the Committee in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:34C-6.2(l) in which the intern’s qualified clinical supervisor has outlined planned hours of clinical supervision, types of clinical supervision, the nature of the intern’s work assignments and other specifications that the qualified clinical supervisor deems appropriate to the alcohol and drug counselor-intern’s level of training, and other requirements as set forth in N.J.A.C. 13:34C-6.2(b);

• Have their supervisor submit a plan of supervision addendum;

• Practice under the supervision of the qualified clinical supervisor, in compliance with the plan of supervision approved by the Committee;

• Complete an online application; and

• Certify to the accuracy of statements and documents submitted as part of the application.

Additionally, the intern's qualified clinical supervisor must retain responsibility for the alcohol and drug counselor-intern in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:34C-6.2(c)-(k).

Upon expiration of a temporary certification granted pursuant to this Order, the counselor-intern is required to fulfill all remaining statutory and regulatory requirements for certification, to include all of the requirements modified and waived in this Order, in order to continue to provide services via telehealth or telemedicine.

Hours of supervised work experience completed while holding a temporary certification will count toward the requirement to complete two years of supervised work experience pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:2D-5(a)(2), N.J.A.C. 13:34C-2.3(b)(3).

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