Skills and Characteristics of Mental Health Human Services Workers BSHS/471 Skills and Characteristics of Mental Health Human Services Workers Growing up, we as humans learn to have compassion for others and we learn that we can offer our help to whatever individuals may be going through. We may offer help to our friends, families, or we even may be kind enough to help out individuals that we do not even know. One particular issue that this world is faced with today, especially America, is mental health. Today, there are professional service workers who fight for, assist, and counsel these mental health patients. These professionals possess great skills and characteristics required to offer assistance to the patients to help them be better and function in society.
The counselor then identifies any ethical or substance abuse concerns and uses educational comments, empowerment/support statements, and reframes as therapeutic interactions with the client. Finally, the counselor identifies the client’s current coping strategies and presents possible coping alternatives such as support groups, long-term therapy, legal referrals or referrals to other medical professionals or agencies. It is important that the counselor take steps to get a client’s commitment to follow-through with recommendations. Some may consider the six-step model a more straightforward and efficient intervention model designed to work as an integrated problem-solving process (James, 2008). All six steps involve an ongoing assessment, which is also a critical component of crisis intervention.
Treatment planning provides a road map for the counseling process (Erford, 2010). Assessment and diagnosis play the most important role in case conceptualization and treatment planning because it allows the professional counselor to gain a better understanding about the client’s issues and needs. Professional counselors’ assessment involves intake interviews, test and inventories, behavioral observations and relevant information from other sources (Barlow & Durand, 2003; Nystul, 2006). According to Erford (2010) the assessment process helps the professional counselor put together a diagnosis and set up a treatment plan. Professional counselors also need to consider how issues such as race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, family structure, trauma, and sexual and gender orientation affect a client’s presenting concerns and what impact these variables have on the acceptability of , and the access to, counseling (Erford, 2010).
COU101 Theories of Counseling. Assessment 1: Short answer paper. Peter Henderson This essay will examine Michael Lambert’s common factors and what roles they play in the therapeutic process. It will examine why the therapeutic relationship is so critical and how it is regarded to be a key ingredient across several modalities of therapy. The essay will also discuss how important it is for a counselor to be culturally aware and adhere to ethical principles in psychotherapy.
Through this identification, the reader will attain a greater understanding of the requirements needed for competent mental health counseling. Role of Researcher Mental health counselors aside from specializations must be informed about the people whom they work for. Understanding the characteristics of their clientele, counselors seek to understand interests, attitudes, personalities and intelligent quotients (Sherpis, et.al., 2010). One method used to attain reliable and accurate data can be demonstrated through research within these areas. Variables within data both quantitative and qualitative must be approached from an unbiased perspective aimed at seeking relevancy to these clients.
Mental health practitioners have many functions and serve clients in a vast array of roles. This paper will discuss the historical treatment of those with mental health issues and transition into current trends in counseling, which include: mental asylums, outpatient counseling, managed care, integrative approach and virtual therapy. A discussion regarding the important elements of counselor identity, function and ethics as well as biblical and personal insights are also included. Keywords: counselors, mental health practitioners, avoiding harm History and Trends In Counseling Essentially all mental health practitioners, regardless of their area of concentration, have the same paragon, which is to help their clients accomplish their mental health goals (Rudow, 2012, p. 44). From today’s perspective, the early use of electroconvulsive therapy (which led to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects) is considered draconian but during their era, clinicians used the technique in an attempt to help their clients achieve mental soundness.
This allowed our class to become informed on the process of admitting a patient in the field. Our class gained an understanding of the process of providing substance abuse services to clients. We learned the importance of prioritizing a client’s treatment plan. Our insight also included understanding the different treatment stages and familiarizing ourselves with local agencies offering treatment by looking up agencies and resources using 211, the phonebook and the internet. We gained an understanding of peer pressure in adolescents and discussed prevention programs created to teach adolescents the skills needed to make good decisions.
To advance the education of the public in the part that counselling and/or psychotherapy can play generally and in particular to meet the needs of those members of society where development and participation in society is impaired by mental, physical or social handicap or disability. Their latest Ethical Framework encompasses all the earlier codes and is intended to steer the practice of counselling and psychotherapy in an ethical, accountable and mindful direction and is supposed to echo the ethical diversity for the practitioners dealing with the all the variety of client’s circumstances and needs. ------------------------------------------------- The Framework can be split into 3 keys features. These are (1)
Identifying my preferred counseling specialization and how the specialization emerged My preferred counseling specialization is Mental Health Counseling, accessing clients with life changing events, such as: tragedy, death, and a broad area of mental issues in general; in order to give a diagnosis, and render a treatment plan (North Carolina Counselor-License). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the
Their goal for any client is to provide optimal mental health. A clinical mental health counselor provides services for those who are addicted to substances such as drugs and alcohol, those who have depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc., those who need or ask for family parenting skills, couples therapy for marital problems, those who no longer want to be in this world, those who have self-esteem issues, and for those who are aging and the issues that come along with the aging process (MyPlan.com, 2009; Gladding & Newsome, 2010). Clinical mental health counselors have many different job titles, such as counselor, consultant, case manager, clinical