EYA Achieves National Accreditation

Eckerd Youth Alternatives (EYA) has achieved national accreditation from the Council of Accreditation (COA) and Praesidium, the national leader in abuse risk management, announced EYA President and CEO David Dennis.

"Achieving national COA and Praesidium certifications for our programs will help more parents, educators, government officials and the general public recognize what many already know - EYA programs are among the best in our industry," said EYA President and CEO David Dennis. "The processes were thorough, comprehensive and exhaustive."

Prior to this approval, only EYA's outdoor therapeutic programs had COA accreditation. EYA outdoor therapeutic programs have been COA accredited since 1997, beginning with E-Nini-Hassee in Florida and E-Sun-Alee (now Eckerd Academy at Deer Lodge) in Tennessee. In 2005, all the outdoor therapeutic programs were united under one accreditation.

The COA team reviewed EYA's administrative and management services such as Human Resources, Performance and Quality Improvement, and Risk Prevention. They also reviewed the service delivery administration initiatives of administrative and service environment, as well as client rights, training and supervision, and behavior support and management.

Praesidium Accreditation � is an honor that demonstrates to consumers and insurance underwriters that EYA has achieved the highest industry standards in abuse prevention.

To attain Praesidium accreditation, EYA underwent a rigorous risk assessment to review and scrutinize eight primary operational areas within its business including: policies, screening and selection, training, monitoring and supervision, consumer participation, feedback systems, responding and administrative systems. The assessment results were benchmarked against "The Safety Equation," a Praesidium trademarked process that measures 800 best practice standards and empirically based data collection methods to assess the risk of abuse in an organization.

Praesidium is the national leader in abuse risk management and has worked with thousands of companies worldwide for 20 years. More information about Praesidium Accreditation is available at www.PraesidiumInc.com.

COA is an international, independent, not-for-profit, child- and family-service and behavioral healthcare accrediting organization that was founded in 1977 by the Child Welfare League of America and Family Service America (now the Alliance for Children and Families). To find out more about COA and the accreditation process, visit the organization's website at www.coanet.org or call 866-262-8088.

EYA Achieves National Accreditation - Twice