There are two proposed levels of certification under this Standard:
Residential Rehabilitation Service
Therapeutic Community
The first level of the Standard allows an organisation to gain certification against a set of criteria that are directly applicable to a Residential Rehabilitation Service for alcohol and other drug use. For services considering a transition to the Therapeutic Community model, working with this Standard will assist in providing guidelines to assist a service that is seeking certification as a Therapeutic Community.
The second level of the Standard allows an organisation to seek certification as a Therapeutic Community.
The 3rd edition of the ATCA Standard includes expectation 14. Expectation 14 addresses Governance and Financial Management. Audits against Expectation 14 are optional. Service wishing to maintain their industry standard will continue to seek certification against the ATCA Standard, in addition to the industry standard, by completing Expectations 1-6 (Residential Rehabilitation Services) or Expectations 1-13 (Therapeutic Communities).
Services undertaking an audit against the ATCA Standard now have an option to gain full industry accreditation against the ATCA Standard, through the inclusion of Expectation 14.
For Residential Rehabilitation Services, this will require an audit against Expectation 1-6 plus Expectation 14; and for services wishing to be accredited as a Therapeutic Community, the completion of all 14 Expectations will be required.