1. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Assessment Modifications and Enhancements to Reflect Changes in Accreditation Standards Carryl P. Navalta, Ph.D. Laurie Craigen, Ph.D. Division of Graduate Medical Sciences BUSM

2. Who do we educate and train?
Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Who do we educate and train?

3. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Commonwealth of Massachusetts licenses several behavioral healthcare professionals
Mental health counselor (LMHC)
Social worker
Marriage and family therapist
Rehabilitation counselor
Alcohol and drug counselor
Applied behavior analyst
Psychologist
Medicine
Psychiatrist
Physician assistant
Psychiatric nurse

4. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Mental health counselors
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico license or certify mental health counselors for private practice
~140,000 mental health counselors in the U.S.
(U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2016)
Mental health counselors are an integral part of the behavioral healthcare workforce

5. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program

6. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Clinical mental health counselors offer a full range of services:
Assessment and diagnosis
Psychotherapy
Treatment planning and utilization review
Brief and solution-focused therapy
Alcoholism and substance abuse treatment
Psychoeducational and prevention programs
Crisis Management
American Mental Health Counselors Association

7. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Accreditation

8. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP): national accrediting agency across seven specialties
Addiction counseling
Career counseling
Clinical mental health counseling
Clinical rehabilitation counseling
College counseling and student affairs
Marriage, couple, and family counseling
School counseling

9. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
CACREP: eight core content areas common across all specialties
Professional counseling orientation and ethical practice
Social and cultural diversity
Human growth and development
Career development
Counseling and helping relationships
Group counseling and group work
Assessment and testing
Research and program evaluation

10. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
CACREP: additional standards specific to each specialty area
Foundations
Example: neurobiological and medical foundation and etiology of addiction and co-occurring disorders
Contextual dimensions
Example: cultural factors relevant to clinical mental health counseling
Practice
Example: strategies for interfacing with integrated behavioral health care professionals

11. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
MHCBM Program was accredited in 2014 under the 2009 CACREP Standards
2016 CACREP Standards are now in place
MHCBM Program is up for re-accreditation in 2022
Self-study needs to be initiated in early 2020 and completed in 2021

12. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program

13. What did we learn in regard to changes in accreditation standards?
Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
What did we learn in regard to changes in accreditation standards?

14. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Differences in number of standards

15. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Differences in number of standards

16. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Additional terminology
Key performance indicators (KPIs): student learning outcomes that are connected to the curriculum and chosen by faculty to represent student knowledge and skills related to program objectives
Additional student characteristics
Professional dispositions: commitments, characteristics, values, beliefs, interpersonal functioning, and behaviors that influence the counselor's professional growth and interactions with clients and colleagues

17. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
The mission of the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine (MHCBM) Master’s Degree Program at Boston University School of Medicine is to provide exceptional academic and clinical fieldwork experience that emphasizes the core competencies of clinical mental health counseling with complementary training in behavioral medicine and neuroscience. Accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the MHCBM Program places great value on excellence, diversity, integrity, social justice, advocacy, collegiality, equality of opportunity, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Our Program offers theoretical, experiential, clinical, and research-supported activities related to clinical mental health counseling with adults, adolescents, and children on the medical campus as well as in community settings. We accept and educate a broad range of outstanding students who seek careers as clinical mental health counselors. Graduates of the MHCBM Program generally become independently licensed and are trained to work in settings where traditional mental health interventions can be informed by evidence-based practice, an understanding of neuroscience, and strategies to address physical illness and health promotion.

18. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
At the completion of the MHCBM Program, students are able to:
Demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that uniquely embody clinical mental health counselors
Apply theories and methods derived from the mental health counseling field to the assessment, prevention and treatment of health and mental health conditions
Integrate multicultural and diversity competence into their counseling practice
Articulate how a behavioral medicine framework and neuroscience evidence can inform mental health counseling interventions
Establish that they possess the requisite knowledge to become licensed to practice as mental health counselors within the behavioral healthcare workforce

19. Assessment of Students
Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Assessment of Students

20. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Program faculty systematically assesses each student’s progress throughout the program by examining student learning in relation to a combination of knowledge and skills
Identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) of student learning in each of the eight core areas and in each student’s respective specialty area(s)  minimum 9 KPIs
Measurement of student learning conducted via multiple measures and over multiple points in time
Review or analysis of data

21. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Program faculty systematically assesses each student’s professional dispositions throughout the program
Identification of key professional dispositions
Measurement of student professional dispositions over multiple points in time
Review or analysis of data
Program faculty has a systematic process in place for the use of individual student assessment data in relation to retention, remediation, and dismissal

22. Evaluation of the Program
Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Evaluation of the Program

23. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Programs have a documented, empirically-based plan for systematically evaluating the program objectives, including student learning
Data that will be collected
Procedure for how and when data will be collected
Method for how data will be reviewed or analyzed
Explanation for how data will be used for curriculum and program improvement

24. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
Program faculty demonstrate the use of the following to evaluate the program objectives
Aggregate student assessment data that address student knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions
Demographic and other characteristics of applicants, students, and graduates
Data from systematic follow-up studies of graduates, site supervisors, and employers of program graduates

25. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program

26. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program

27. Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine Program
“There is no health without mental health.”
Dr. David Satcher: 16th Surgeon General of the United States ( )