Professional Organizations

• The costs, benefits and issues associated with establishing a national organization or a professional college to represent the substance abuse workforce
• The most appropriate model for representing this workforce

The results of this study, Models of Professionalism, indicate that while there are advantages to establishing an association, more work needs to be done to determine whether the substance abuse field could benefit from a voluntary national organization with a mandate specific to substance abuse.

Some provinces have begun to study the lack of requirements needed to join the substance abuse workforce. Ontario and Saskatchewan are two, for example, and their approaches are somewhat different.

Many professionals working in the substance abuse field already belong to an association or college such as social workers, nurses, psychologists or health services executives. Follow the links below to learn more about these and other national associations and professional colleges that could potentially serve as a model for the substance abuse field.

• Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations
• Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation
• Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research
• Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists
• Canadian Association of Social Workers
• Canadian College of Health Service Executives
• Canadian College of Teachers
• Canadian Council of Professional Certification
• Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
• Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses
• Canadian Nurses Association
• Canadian Pharmacists Association
• Canadian Psychiatric Association
• Canadian Psychological Association
• Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine
• Canadian Society of Association Executives
• College of Family Physicians of Canada
• Employee Assistance Professionals Association
• Medical Council of Canada
• Paramedic Association of Canada
• Practical Nurses Canada