Addiction Treatment Survey – CARF

NewDay Counseling recently went through our second addiction treatment survey by CARF. For those unfamiliar with CARF, this is a description of their mission from Wikipedia:

CARF’s mission is to provide accreditation standards and surveyors for organizations working in the human-services field worldwide with a base in traditional facilities and institutional settings. Among the many areas of practice represented in the CARF standards are aging services; behavioral health, which replaces institutional behavior management; psychosocial rehabilitation; child and youth services (with younger and established family services and support); durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS); employment (e.g., work readiness and evaluation) and community services; medical (and “community”) rehabilitation; and opioid treatment programs.^[1]

In other words, it’s a seal of approval so the public knows we’ve been evaluated by an outside group of experts. We received a 3 year accreditation in 2015, which is the highest they award. We have the certificate displayed proudly in our lobby. They award 1 year, 2 year and 3 year accreditations, depending on how well the survey goes. If the survey doesn’t go very well, they’ll come back in a year, and if it goes fairly well but not so great, they come back in 2 years, and if it goes very well, they come back in 3 years. We’re hoping for another 3 year accreditation. We worked hard to make continuous improvements.

CARF looks at all aspects our program – administration, financial, human resources, clinical, etc. They have a manual of standards/best practices and we try to maintain adherence to the standards. NewDay maintains a system of internal oversight that evaluates risks and works to improves quality. We have a strategic plan and goals we work toward, measuring our progress along the way. Some people dread CARF surveys, and I can’t say they’re fun, but it’s good to have experts survey our operation and give us feedback — it’s lets me know we’re either on track or need to make adjustments. The bottom line is that all improvements help patient care, which is what it’s all about. I hope our second addiction treatment survey goes as well as the first one — I’ll know in about 6 weeks, and I’ll post the results.