Behavioral Health Care Accreditation and Certification Options

Whether your organization is large or small, you’ll find Joint Commission accreditation and certification options that can help your organization meet its mission.

Accreditation Options

Behavioral Health Care Accreditation
The Behavioral Health Care Accreditation combines a behavioral-health specific, improvement-focused quality framework with collaborative and educational on-site evaluation to help organizations identify and address vulnerabilities to safeguard the individuals they serve.

Accreditation for Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs)
The Joint Commission is deemed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide accreditation for Opioid Treatment Programs, which are defined as “a program or practitioner engaged in opioid treatment of individuals with an opioid agonist medication.” All OTPs must be accredited by a federally deemed accrediting body. The Joint Commission has held deemed status for OTP accreditation since 2001, when accreditation was federally mandated. OTP’s that choose Joint Commission accreditation must be accredited under The Joint Commission’s Behavioral Health Care (BHC) Accreditation program.

Each OTP program must be accredited separately. If an OTP is part of an organization accredited by The Joint Commission, the OTP(s) must have a distinct accreditation.
The Joint Commission will posts OTP survey results and related correspondence to a SAMHSA-only extranet site to confirm that the OTP is accredited and in compliance with federal accreditation requirements. In addition, all complaints received by The Joint Commission regarding OTPs are posted to this site as required by federal accrediting body reporting requirements.

Corporate Advantage for Behavioral Health Care
This option addresses the unique management and oversight needs of multi-facility behavioral health organizations, helping to identify the processes/systems across programs and locations that impact quality or safety. This option provides streamlined, coordinated access to Joint Commission personnel and accreditation resources.

Learn more about OTP Accreditation

Certification Options

Behavioral Health Home Certification
This certification is an additional level of recognition on top of accreditation for organizations that act as a behavioral health home for individuals they serve. Behavioral health homes provide a high level of integration and coordination of physical health care for individuals receiving behavioral health care, treatment or services. This optional certification goes above and beyond what is required for accreditation and provides additional recognition for these services.

Disease-Specific Care Certification
Disease-Specific Care (DSC) Certification is an option for behavioral health organizations seeking to demonstrate the quality and safety of their organized, programmatic approach to care, treatment, or services for those with specific diagnoses or needs (for example, eating disorder treatment, bipolar disorder, chemical dependency or self-injury).

Download Behavioral Health Home Certification guideLearn more about Disease-Specific Care Certification

Special Survey Options

Early Survey Option
The Early Survey Option allows an organization to enter the accreditation process in two stages. This can be helpful for organizations that do not yet actively provide care, but are looking to provide evidence to payers or regulators of their intent to obtain full accreditation. This option makes it possible to set up the business operations on a foundation of compliance with Joint Commission standards prior to serving the first individuals. The second survey would then concentrate on the care, treatment and services being provided.

Tailored Survey Option
For organizations seeking accreditation across multiple disciplines (i.e., behavioral health care and home physical care, ambulatory physical care or hospital settings) The Joint Commission offers a tailored survey option to help coordinate and streamline the application and survey process across more than one accreditation manual.