MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- The general counseling and family advocacy programs for the Marine and Family Services Division on Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow went through an in-depth accreditation process April 19-20.
According to Headquarters Marine Corps, the accreditation is meant to guarantee that the services provided for the Marines and their family members here are not only up to date with current regulations, but are conducting themselves with the best-practice standards. If the office did in fact have any discrepancies, it was the job of the accreditation team to bring up the issues in their final report to the base commanding officer.
The team consisted of two unpaid volunteers from the COA, and one representative from HQMC, said Dr. David Nieman, clinical supervisor for Marine and Family Services Division.
The two COA reviewers perform their duties on a strictly volunteer basis, but they are qualified to complete the inspection, stated HQMC. Each reviewer has a graduate degree in the counseling field, a valid license to practice independently and at least three years experience of either providing or supervising counseling services.
One of the reviewers told Nieman that after doing six other reviews on other bases, the praise and good marks on the accreditation report for this base was well deserved, he said.
The accreditation team also noticed the uniqueness of the General Counseling and Family Advocacy programs that are available on base, said Nieman. The uniqueness had a perfectly good explanation for it though.
"We are the only Marine base in the Marine Corps to have all counseling programs under one roof. Those programs are: The Civilian Employee Assistance Program, General Counseling, Family Advocacy Program and the Military Drug and Alcohol Programs. We truly provide one stop shopping for counseling services," said Nieman.
Another issue brought up by the accreditation team, was the credentials of the substance abuse counselor, Jan Capaccioli, said Nieman.
According to the team, all SACs must have a six month substance abuse certificate from a state or military organization. Unfortunately, Capaccioli doesn't have a certificate, but she does have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree in social work, a license to counsel patients after passing both a written and oral exam and years of experience in the substance abuse arena, Nieman said.
Capaccioli is known as a Tier 3 counselor, which means she has a license to counsel anybody for any sort of ailment they might be having, from drug addicts to manic depressives, said Nieman. It is because of this out of the ordinary problem that the clinic is not fully accredited yet, but the outlook is good considering general grade officers are currently taking care of the problem.
The general counsel and family advocacy have also been reviewed by a focus group made up of high ranking officials stationed on MCLB Barstow, said Nieman.
"The focus group believes that the family advocacy and general counsel on base are the best in the Marine Corps," Nieman said.
Despite the accreditation being a mandatory requirement for the Marine and Family Services here, Nieman is glad to finally be able to say that people don't have to just assume that the services provided are good and up to date, he said.