Cobleskill, NY – SUNY Cobleskill’s Beard Wellness Center has been recognized for two significant national achievements. The Center has received a Gold Award in the Athletics, Recreation, Counseling, Health, Wellness, and Related Programs category from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), and it has been re-accredited and praised by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC).
Each year, NASPA honors prominent higher education and student affairs leaders, programs, and initiatives for contributions and impact on the field. The Beard Wellness Center was presented with the award for “The Evidence Room”: A Substance Themed Escape Room. This interactive substance abuse education program, offered to students at SUNY Cobleskill, integrates puzzles and clues that provide education on topics such as standard drink size, binge drinking, alcohol poisoning, tobacco policy, social norming for tobacco and marijuana use, fire alarm tampering, understanding of violation types, amnesty, and resources. “The Evidence Room” was designed and implemented by Beard Wellness Center staff members Katherine Simpson, CHES, and Danielle Reu, LMHC, in collaboration with campus and community partners.
Beard Wellness Center achieved AAAHC re-accreditation after a rigorous process, including an on-site survey of governance, quality of care, quality improvement, infection control, facility safety, compliance with regulatory bodies, behavioral health, and health education among others. The AAAHC Certificate of Accreditation demonstrates an organization’s commitment to providing safe, high-quality services to its patients through its adherence to rigorous standards of care.
The Center has been deemed fully compliant, and the evaluation states “The Beard Wellness Center has in place an exemplary Quality Improvement Assessment Program,” and “the Beard Wellness Center provides high quality care to their students and the Behavioral Health service is excellent and one that should be emulated by larger student health centers.” SUNY Cobleskill is one of only twenty SUNY campuses to hold AAAHC accreditation. The Center has been accredited by AAAHC since 2005, in three-year cycles.
“Plainly stated, accreditation keeps us on our toes,” says Mary Radliff, co-director of the Center. “It keeps us up to current standards of care in health care. Accreditation has helped us, and continues to help us, improve our health care practice and subsequently improve service to our students.”
This release was initially published by SUNY Cobleskill, 04/21/20
