New Date set for NCCAP Exam
7/7/2010
The NCCAP Education committee met at the NCCAP symposium in June 2010, and has revised the time line for implementation of the mandatory national exam as follows;
In keeping with the NCCAP strategic plan and in completing the final step of the eight year MEPAP reengineering project, NCCAP will be implementing an exam that all NEW applicants must complete in order to apply for national certification at the ADC or ACC level(s) effective January 1, 2012. All other national credentialing bodies require individuals to complete an exam to ensure the competency levels all meet the established standard of the association; this will also apply to NCCAP certification, and will show CMS that all individuals that apply for NCCAP certification have the same core knowledge as with all other disciplines. Be watching the NCCAP announcement page and future electronic newsletters for more details as the implementation dates draws closer.
PLEASE NOTE***THIS WILL NOT effect those individuals already nationally certified at any level with NCCAP before December 31, 2011.
Learn more
NCCAP Symposium
1/22/2010
NCCAP will be holding a two-day Educational Symposium from Friday, June 4, 2010 through Saturday June 5, 2010, in Cincinnati, OH. Visit http://www.nccap.org/symposium/index.shtml for details.
NCCAP Specializations available to certified individuals
1/10/2010
NCCAP Board of Directors approves Education committee recommendations related to offering “Specializations” to the certified members credentials.
Effective January 1, 2009, NCCAP certified individuals can apply to have a specialization designation by adding 10 hours of continuing education specific to that specialization. As follows;
ADC for example -
A Specialization in Assisted Living would be ADC/ALF
A Specialization in Memory Care would be ADC/MC
A Specialization in Adult Day Programs would be ADC/AD
A Specialization in Educating would be ADC/EDU
AAC would be AAC/ALF, AAC/MC, AAC/AD, etc
ACC would be ACC/ALF, etc
For each desired designation, the individual must submit evidence showing 10 CE’s from the specialization Body of Knowledge topic areas which have been updated for each category and are listed on the www.nccap.org site.
If an individual will be requesting the specialization at the same time as their renewal, they would submit the required (30 CE’s) and fee for their renewal PLUS the additional 10 CE’s and fee PER each specialization they are requesting.
If a person will only be requesting the specialization not in conjunction with their renewal they would simply send the 10 CE’s and fee for each specialization they are requesting.
Verification that the CE’s come from the designated specialization track is the responsibility of the applicant. Initial specializations can go back 5 years for their CE’s, and renewal specializations can go back 2 years, in keeping with the NCCAP standards.
As the industry evolves, so must our association to keep current. The demand for specializations in the varied areas is high, and NCCAP is setting the standards coinciding with the national average of educational hours in each area.
For more information visit the NCCAP website at www.nccap.org
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NCCAP Goes green(er)
12/26/2009
(Taken from the NCCAP website)
NCCAP printed the fall 2009 newsletter and mailed it to all the certified members, and as always it is now archived on the NCCAP website.
EFFECTIVE the winter 2010 issue, NCCAP will be utilizing an email program and emailing the members their newsletter (except of course for those that do not have email or truly wish for their issue to be mailed). NCCAP feels this will not only help the environment, but it will also be less costly, and that money could be better spent in providing additional scholarship money for the certified activity professionals to utilize toward their credentialing needs.
IF you do not have email, or wish to continue to receive the hard copy in the mail rather than email, please put that in writing to info@nccap.org; if we do not hear from you, the newsletter will be email effective the Winter 2010 issue.
NCCAP will be mailing all the certified individuals the email address that we currently have in the NCCAP data base, provided by you, to determine if it is the most accurate and current email address before the newsletters are emailed to you - BUT as ever they will be archived on the NCCAP site. Be watching for your ballot and the email address notice within the month.
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NCCAP to implement a National exam for all initial ADC and ACC applicants effective 1/1/2011.
11/11/2009
(taken from the NCCAP website)
In keeping with the NCCAP strategic plan and in completing the final step of the eight year MEPAP reengineering project, NCCAP will be implementing an exam that all NEW applicants must complete in order to apply for national certification at the ADC or ACC level(s) effective January 1, 2011. All other national credentialing bodies require individuals to complete an exam to ensure the competency levels all meet the established standard of the association; this will also apply to NCCAP certification, and will show CMS that all individuals that apply for NCCAP certification have the same core knowledge as with all other disciplines. Be watching the NCCAP announcement page and future electronic newsletters for more details as the implementation dates draws closer.
PLEASE NOTE***THIS WILL NOT effect those individuals already nationally certified at any level with NCCAP before December 31, 2010.
Thank you to Vicki Surash, MA, ACC for all her assistance in formulating the exam, along with all the educators, and education committee members for their input.
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NCCAP addresses H.R. 4248
1/11/2008
(Taken from the NCCAP website)
NCCAP received numerous calls, emails r/t to the proposed H.R.4248, and NCCAP has submitted a statement to legislators as follows;
The National Certification Council for Activity Professionals (http://www.nccap.org/) has been certifying individuals that work with primarily the elderly populations in assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities and retirement facilities etc for over 20 years. We too are recognized by CMS in the federal regulations under F249 as being a nationally credentialing body for activity professionals which enable a person to be considered qualified to lead activity programming in these types of facilities.
NCCAP while not directly opposed to the intent of H.R.Bill 4248, are concerned with the exclusiveness of the terminology r/t who is qualified to lead the activity programs in especially the SNF facilities, as activities are reimbursable as long as the program is lead by the terms of F249, which as stated above includes NCCAP. If the bill is passed as stated, many administrators in the SNF's facilities could mistakenly believe that they must employ a recreation therapist to lead their programs which is not the case. If recreation is ordered by a physician, then it would indeed be conducted by a recreation therapist, much like if Physical Therapy was ordered by a physician it would be conducted by a physical therapist. Activity programs offered in geriatric facilities are therapeutic by nature in that they meet their meaningful quality of life in areas of mental, psychosocial, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being’s.
NCCAP much like NCTRC has over 6,000 national credentialed individuals (while NCTRC may have a larger number of certified, a good portion of their certified work in mental health or child development, not with the geriatric population). Both organizations are recognized nationally as being considered "qualified to lead activity programs," an NCCAP certified activity program is reimbursed by the daily per patient per day (ppd)rate, and does not require an additional physician order, yet meets the resident’s meaningful quality of life.
NCCAP would ask that you do NOT support the bill as worded, in that it is perceived exclusive in nature and could mistakenly be an assumed mandate that facilities discharge their qualified NCCAP certified activity professionals, only to replace them with a recreation therapist that probably has not been physician ordered.
State Association Contest
3/08
NCCAP is running a state association contest. The association and individual that assist the most people in obtaining their NCCAP certification will be awarded. The contest ends 12/31/07. NCCAP is also in the process of conducting research by reviewing the deficiencies specifically focusing on F248/249. This research is to determine if the individuals that received the deficiency held an activity credential or not. The research will also indicate what types of citations are being written, to whom, how many etc. The results should be in by April 2008.
NCCAP News
January 14, 2008
Submitted by Debbie Hommel, ACC, CTRS
The following information was taken from the NCCAP web site.
In November, 2007, the NCCAP Board of Directors re-introduced ADC Track 5 indefinitely. Individuals that wish to apply for NCCAP Certification using ADC Track 5 need to complete the ADC Track 5 form, in addition to the NCCAP application, and follow the NCCAP standards accordingly.
To qualify for Track 5, the individual needs the following:
- Completion of a basic activity course, ranging from 36-90 hours, between the years 1991 and 2001
- 6 years experience (12,000 hours) within the past ten years.
- 30 hours of continuing education which includes 6 hours focusing on activity documentation.
NCCAP has also been working on evaluating ACC Track 3 and after completing a pilot program and much discussion – the Track 3 for becoming a certified consultant has been revised for an undesignated time frame. Those that have an Associate’s Degree, 4000 hours of activity experience, 40 hours of continuing education, completion of the MEPAP course(s), 200 hours of consulting, and completion of the 2 year Activity Professional Manager & Consultant curriculum with a qualified mentor can apply.
For more information about either of these topics, you can visit the NCCAP web site at www.nccap.org. To obtain applications for national certification or to find out how you can become certified, you can visit the NCCAP web site or call 757) 552-0653. Or you can call or email Debbie Hommel, NCCAP State Representative at debbiehommel@comcast.net or 609-698-9530.
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