What does a Certified Employee Assistance Professional do?

A Certified Employee Assistance Professional, or CEAP, provides support and counseling to employees and their families on a wide range of workplace and personal problems that may affect job performance. They also can provide organizations with consulting and training.

How do I become a CEAP?

To become a Certified Employee Assistance Professional, you must get CEAP certification. To obtain this, one has to go through an employee assistance program and work towards a certain number of continuing education units, such as the ones offered through the Treatment Solutions Network’s two-day CEAP training conference. This conference helps you cover the advisement and personal development hours by providing continuing education units towards your certification.

What happens after I become one?

Support for a Certified Employee Assistance Professional is provided through the Employee Assistance Professionals Associations, or EAPA. Your membership in the EAPA provides you with guidelines and connections to keep you current on proper workplace policies and treatments in regards to workplace problems and issues. The workplace in today’s world is ever-changing and evolving, and support through the EAPA is a valuable way of keeping up on the latest and most effective treatments and procedures.

Why should I become a Certified Employee Assistance Professional?

There are many benefits to becoming a CEAP:
1. It benefits both your career and your income. Employee assistance needs are in high demand. Studies show that CEAPs that are employed to fill these positions are compensated at better rates than non-CEAPs filling the same positions.
2. The CEAP certification demonstrates knowledge of employee assistance issues. Being a Certified Employee Assistance Professional shows that you know all the basics to provide effective counseling and case management for your client.
3. Having CEAP certification shows that you are continuously developing your knowledge of employee assistance through continuing education opportunities. As mentioned above, CEAPs work to increase and develop their working knowledge of workplace issues through continuing education courses and conferences, like the above-mentioned one offered by the Treatment Solutions Network.
4. Becoming a CEAP is a rigorous process. If you are a Certified Employee Assistance Professional, you are demonstrating to potential employers that you are a dedicated worker and that your profession is important to you.

Becoming a Certified Employee Assistance Professional is a rewarding experience, and it is one that will put you in the position to assist workplaces and employees for years to come. Contact the Treatment Solutions Network at their website to take part in furthering your career as a CEAP.

If you want to be a Substance Abuse Professional (SAP), it is required that you go through special training to be certified. However, it is important that you do not simply choose any course: here are a few things to keep in mind when deciding which SAP training course is right for you:

Do they cover the DOT’s Substance Abuse Professional training rules and regulations?

The DOT requires that all courses cover the following information:

• The DOT’s drug and alcohol testing program: its background, rationale, etc.
• Key drug and alcohol testing requirements, including collection, testing, and the problems in drug and alcohol testing
• Reporting requirements and what is expected of your recordkeeping
• Issues that Substance Abuse Professionals confront on the job
• Does the trainer teaching the course know the topic?

It is essential that, like any class, the instructor knows the topic well and is not simply teaching out of a handbook. You need an instructor with experience and is very knowledgeable about SAP standards and qualifications.

Does the training go beyond the qualifications?

A good SAP training course will include things like case studies, stories, and other situational problems that SAPs find themselves in regularly. Try to find an instructor who communicates with current SAPs on a regular basis for updated information and new situations and problems.

Will the training cover reporting requirements?Reporting and recordkeeping requirements are strict. Your course must include these requirements and teach you how to keep effective and proper records that follow these guidelines.

Does the course teach you how to get work?

Being trained to be an SAP is about more than simply learning the requirements: your training course should cover how to set up your own SAP practice, or how to market yourself in your community.

Will the training show you how to get answers?

You will not be in class forever, and you will not leave the class with answers to all of your questions. You need to learn where to look, either in your manual, your notes, or on the web, to find answers to questions that come up.

What is the instructor’s reputation?

Try to talk to others who have taken his/her course. People who have experience should be willing to help you choose.

Do they claim to be approved or endorsed by the DOT?

The DOT does not endorse any SAP instructional course, nor do they endorse instructors. Be careful of any class that claims this.
Like any class, it’s important to review what it claims to teach you and the subject matter it will cover before enrolling. Take note of some of these tips before you look at your SAP qualification training course.

Who is qualified to act as a SAP, info on the DOT Website