Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in Mississippi: Credentials, Hours and Exams

The DMH Substance Use Therapist program has three levels: the PCSUT, a temporary and non-renewable credential valid up to 24 consecutive months; the CSUT, the full certification, renewable while renewal requirements are met; and the LCSUT, discontinued effective January 2009 and closed to new applicants, though pre-2009 holders may keep renewing.

These are state credentials issued under Miss.

Code § 41-4-7, not licences, and state-system employment is their gate: only individuals currently employed in a state mental health system program — one certified, funded and/or operated by DMH — are eligible to apply for and hold a credential.

Initial applicants must have responsibility for providing or supervising substance-use services; upgrade applicants are exempt from that specific requirement.

Beside the state ladder, MAAP, a private IC&RC member board, lists the CADC / CADC-I / CADC-II / CAADC / CIC titles, with tier-by-tier figures in a Certification Manual the sources read do not include.

Both PCSUT and CSUT applicants need a graduate-level degree (master's level or above) in an addictions, substance use, mental health, or human services/behavioral health related field from an institution DMH approves, comprising at least 30 semester hours or its equivalent.

The rule lists example degrees, from counseling, social work and psychology to psychiatric nursing and criminal justice, and for atypical degrees it counts five graduate-level courses from listed areas such as co-occurring disorders, the physiology and pharmacology of addictions, and professional ethics; add-on courses qualify, but the master's itself is not waived.

Applicants applying directly for the CSUT submit an official transcript; PCSUT-to-CSUT upgrades do not resend one, because the education check happened at the provisional application.

Full CSUT certification requires a minimum of two years (24 months or its full-time equivalent) of full-time work experience in the field of alcohol and other drug use prevention/treatment services, supervised and verified by a qualified supervisor; providing or supervising those services both satisfy the field requirement, and prevention employment counts.

The measure is a 40-hour week: part-time experience is converted to a full-time equivalent with PLACE Review Board sign-off, and relevant work earned before the graduate degree may count subject to Review Board and Division approval.

Graduate-level internships completed inside a behavioral-health-related master's program and verified by a Qualified Supervisor may satisfy up to six months of the two years.

PCSUT applicants face no work experience requirement, and the rule states no supervision-hour figure.

The examination gate applies only to full CSUT certification, so a PCSUT can be credentialed without it.

Passing takes at least seventy percent (70%), and the exam's content comes from a customized collection of DMH e-learning courses that DMH may update without prior notice, so applicants should take the courses DMH currently prescribes.

Attempt limits bite differently by route: a PCSUT gets up to four opportunities during the provisional period, and a fourth failure automatically defaults the credential; someone registering for the exam in anticipation of entering directly at the CSUT level gets one attempt, and failing it means applying for the PCSUT to continue.

MAAP's separate route runs through its Certification Examining Board and ends in the IC&RC International Written Examination.

Every work-experience form must be verified by a Qualified Supervisor, defined as someone providing active supervision who meets at least one of these criteria: holding the CSUT or LCSUT in good standing, holding the DMH Licensed Administrator credential, holding the chair's position of a governing board or commission of a state mental health system program, or being CSUT "certification eligible", meaning the supervisor meets the CSUT education and experience requirements and documents that on a resume or vita.

A Qualified Supervisor should not be the applicant's immediate family member, and a CSUT applicant may not complete their own verification form.

Before you accept a placement you want to count, confirm which of these boxes your prospective supervisor ticks.

Rule 20.5 draws the boundary.

DMH professional credentials are valid only in Mississippi's state mental health system, and the credential title may be used only while actively employed there or in Inactive Status (20.5A).

Within it, PCSUTs, CSUTs and LCSUTs provide alcohol and other substance use treatment services, CSUTs and LCSUTs also supervise that provision, and all three may provide or supervise community support services (20.5B–C).

The hard limit is 20.5F: the certification does not qualify its holder to provide services outside this scope of practice or in private practice.

Diagnosis sits differently: no provision read grants diagnosis authority, and the DMH ethics principles bar only diagnosing outside the recognized boundaries of one's competencies — while Rule 7.4's own education list counts diagnosis-and-treatment coursework toward the degree.

Practicing beyond the scope can bring sanctions (20.5G).

IC&RC reciprocity runs only between member boards, and the member board in Mississippi is MAAP, a private association, not DMH.

A counselor who reciprocates an IC&RC credential into Mississippi therefore lands at MAAP; that transfer does not produce the DMH credential, which requires state-system employment, the DMH exam and the rest of Rule 7.4.

MAAP describes itself as the only organization in the state offering reciprocal certification for alcohol and drug counselors, and the sources read establish no reciprocity or endorsement route onto the DMH credential.

Its tier-by-tier requirements sit in the Certification Manual, which the sources read do not include, so those figures are not stated here.

The CSUT renews on a two-year cycle, and Rule 18.13 requires a minimum of 30 successfully completed continuing education hours earned inside the current two-year period, which runs July 1 to June 30; hours do not carry over between cycles.

At least 26 of the 30 must be alcohol and other substance use prevention/treatment-related, at least two in cultural competency and at least two in ethics, and at least 20 percent (six hours) must be live, face-to-face or interactive online.

Renewal itself is gated: Rule 18.8 requires renewing individuals to remain employed in the state mental health system or hold Inactive Status, Rule 18.6 sets the deadline at June 30 of even years, and a missed deadline moves the credential to Lapsed Status — expired, no longer held.

For the 2026 renewal only, DMH moved the deadline to September 30, 2026.

From January 1, 2012, to July 1, 2026, the program was named the DMH Addictions Therapist program, and the current credentials carry its old titles forward: PCAC/PCAT became PCSUT, CAC/CAT became CSUT, and LCAC/LCAT became LCSUT, all effective July 1, 2026.

The new PLACE Professional Credentialing Rules and Requirements took effect July 28, 2026.

The rename is the practical trap: guides and listings still advertise a Mississippi "Certified Addictions Therapist (CAT)", a title that no longer exists, so applicants should use the CSUT title and the 2026 rules.

The renamed program's own history goes back further still, to an earlier Addiction Counselor program name before 2012.