Wingspan, Spring 2025
According to a 2024 report from the Maryland Health Care Commission, Maryland will need more than 32,000 behavioral health professionals by 2028. You may picture a behavioral health professional as a psychologist seeing patients in an office, but a meaningful career that supports mental health doesn’t have to require a doctorate or years of additional (and expensive) education. Students at AACC are finding ways to support mental health across disciplines, sometimes in fields that may surprise you.
The number of people struggling with addiction has created a public health crisis that has gripped the nation in recent years. In the United States, 40.3 million people 12 or older had a substance use disorder in the past year. More than four out of five Americans who need treatment for drug use do not receive it.
While the stigmas against those with addictions has decreased in recent years, many Americans feel uncomfortable discussing their issues and seeking help. AACC offers an associate degree and certificate program in addiction counseling, which prepare students to combat this epidemic on the front lines.
AACC students completing the Addiction Counseling associate degree program are eligible to sit through the Maryland CSC-AD, the credentialing process to become an alcohol and drug counselor. Professor Sara Meinsler teaches a number of addiction counseling courses and is also the program’s field placement coordinator.
“After doing their first internship, these agencies are hiring students even before they've gotten their degree,” Meinsler said. “They're able to train these students and work with them, and then they can hire them when they're finished their time.”
This is one section of a larger feature story about how students at AACC are finding ways to support mental health. Read the full story.
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