| ||||
Summary Job Description | Tasks | |||
Counsel with emphasis on prevention. Work with individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health. May help individuals deal with issues associated with addictions and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; and aging. | Maintain confidentiality of records relating to clients' treatment. | |||
| ||||
Encourage clients to express their feelings and discuss what is happening in their lives, and help them to develop insight into themselves and their relationships. | ||||
| ||||
Guide clients in the development of skills and strategies for dealing with their problems. | ||||
| ||||
Prepare and maintain all required treatment records and reports. | ||||
| ||||
Counsel clients and patients, individually and in group sessions, to assist in overcoming dependencies, adjusting to life, and making changes. | ||||
| ||||
Collect information about clients through interviews, observation, and tests. | ||||
| ||||
Act as client advocates to coordinate required services or to resolve emergency problems in crisis situations. | ||||
| ||||
Develop and implement treatment plans based on clinical experience and knowledge. | ||||
| ||||
Collaborate with other staff members to perform clinical assessments and develop treatment plans. | ||||
| ||||
Evaluate clients' physical or mental condition based on review of client information. | ||||
| ||||
Meet with families, probation officers, police, and other interested parties to exchange necessary information during the treatment process. | ||||
| ||||
Refer patients, clients, or family members to community resources or to specialists as necessary. | ||||
| ||||
Counsel family members to assist them in understanding, dealing with, and supporting clients or patients. | ||||
| ||||
Evaluate the effectiveness of counseling programs and clients' progress in resolving identified problems and moving towards defined objectives. | ||||
| ||||
Plan, organize and lead structured programs of counseling, work, study, recreation and social activities for clients. | ||||
| ||||
Modify treatment activities and approaches as needed to comply with changes in clients' status. | ||||
| ||||
Learn about new developments in their field by reading professional literature, attending courses and seminars, and establishing and maintaining contact with other social service agencies. | ||||
| ||||
Discuss with individual patients their plans for life after leaving therapy. | ||||
| ||||
Gather information about community mental health needs and resources that could be used in conjunction with therapy. | ||||
| ||||
Monitor clients' use of medications. | ||||
| ||||
Plan and conduct programs to prevent substance abuse or improve community health and counseling services. | ||||
| ||||
Assess patients for risk of suicide attempts. | ||||
| ||||
Fill out and maintain client-related paperwork, including federal- and state-mandated forms, client diagnostic records, and progress notes. | ||||
| ||||
Supervise other counselors, social service staff, assistants, and graduate students. | ||||
| ||||
Coordinate and direct employee workshops, courses, and training about mental health issues. | ||||
| ||||
CompGeo Salary Survey Benchmark Job Summary and Competencies
Mental Health Counselors
The Benchmark Job Description below represents the specific Position Characteristics of the job used in the Salary Survey. Benchmark Job Descriptions should be inspected carefully to review the degree of matching between an organizations' Job and the Salary Survey Benchmark. Matching internal Jobs to Salary Survey Benchmark Jobs should not be done on Job Title alone. A thorough comparison of Salary Survey Benchmark to Internal Job Descriptions is recommended. A good overlap should exist on any comparisons used on critical Job Dimensions and Competencies.- Job Description
- Knowledges
- Skills
- Abilites
- Tools and Technology
- Education and Experience
- Alternate Job Titles
- Salaries
| ||||
Important Knowledge Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Psychology | Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders. | |||
| ||||
Therapy and Counseling | Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance. | |||
| ||||
Sociology and Anthropology | Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins. | |||
| ||||
Customer and Personal Service | Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. | |||
| ||||
English Language | Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. | |||
| ||||
Education and Training | Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects. | |||
| ||||
Philosophy and Theology | Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture. | |||
| ||||
Clerical | Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology. | |||
| ||||
Medicine and Dentistry | Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures. | |||
| ||||
Administration and Management | Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. | |||
| ||||
| ||||
Important Skill Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Active Listening | Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. | |||
| ||||
Social Perceptiveness | Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do. | |||
| ||||
Speaking | Talking to others to convey information effectively. | |||
| ||||
Service Orientation | Actively looking for ways to help people. | |||
| ||||
Monitoring | Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action. | |||
| ||||
Reading Comprehension | Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. | |||
| ||||
Critical Thinking | Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. | |||
| ||||
Persuasion | Persuading others to change their minds or behavior. | |||
| ||||
Judgment and Decision Making | Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. | |||
| ||||
Writing | Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. | |||
| ||||
Complex Problem Solving | Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions. | |||
| ||||
Learning Strategies | Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things. | |||
| ||||
Science | Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems. | |||
| ||||
Active Learning | Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making. | |||
| ||||
Coordination | Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions. | |||
| ||||
Negotiation | Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences. | |||
| ||||
Operations Analysis | Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design. | |||
| ||||
Instructing | Teaching others how to do something. | |||
| ||||
Systems Analysis | Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes. | |||
| ||||
Systems Evaluation | Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system. | |||
| ||||
Time Management | Managing one's own time and the time of others. | |||
| ||||
Management of Personnel Resources | Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job. | |||
| ||||
| ||||
Important Ability Competencies | Competency Description | |||
Oral Expression | The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. | |||
| ||||
Oral Comprehension | The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. | |||
| ||||
Problem Sensitivity | The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. | |||
| ||||
Speech Recognition | The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. | |||
| ||||
Speech Clarity | The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. | |||
| ||||
Inductive Reasoning | The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). | |||
| ||||
Written Comprehension | The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. | |||
| ||||
Written Expression | The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand. | |||
| ||||
Fluency of Ideas | The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). | |||
| ||||
Deductive Reasoning | The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. | |||
| ||||
Selective Attention | The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. | |||
| ||||
Category Flexibility | The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. | |||
| ||||
Originality | The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem. | |||
| ||||
Information Ordering | The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations). | |||
| ||||
Near Vision | The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). | |||
| ||||
Speed of Closure | The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. | |||
| ||||
Flexibility of Closure | The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material. | |||
| ||||
Perceptual Speed | The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object. | |||
| ||||
Memorization | The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures. | |||
| ||||
| ||||
Tools/Technology Example | Product Category | |||
Client information database systems | Medical software | |||
| ||||
Database software | Data base user interface and query software | |||
| ||||
Email software | Electronic mail software | |||
| ||||
Management information systems MIS software | Enterprise resource planning ERP software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Access | Data base user interface and query software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Excel | Spreadsheet software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Internet Explorer | Internet browser software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Office software | Office suite software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Outlook | Electronic mail software | |||
| ||||
Microsoft Word | Word processing software | |||
| ||||
Netscape Navigator | Internet browser software | |||
| ||||
Office suite software | Office suite software | |||
| ||||
Patient electronic medical record EMR software | Medical software | |||
| ||||
Scheduling software | Calendar and scheduling software | |||
| ||||
Spreadsheet software | Spreadsheet software | |||
| ||||
Statistical software | Analytical or scientific software | |||
| ||||
Test interpretation software | Analytical or scientific software | |||
| ||||
Web browser software | Internet browser software | |||
| ||||
Word processing software | Word processing software | |||
| ||||
Desktop computers | Desktop computers | |||
| ||||
Digital medical thermometers | Electronic medical thermometers | |||
| ||||
Flatbed scanners | Scanners | |||
| ||||
Notebook computers | Notebook computers | |||
| ||||
Personal computers | Personal computers | |||
| ||||
Sphygmomanometers | Blood pressure cuff kits | |||
| ||||
| ||||
Prerequisite Qualification Category | Education and Experience Level | |||
Required Level of Education | Master's Degree | |||
| ||||
On-the-Job Training | Over 3 months, up to and including 6 months | |||
| ||||
On-Site or In-Plant Training | Over 1 month, up to and including 3 months | |||
| ||||
Related Work Experience | Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years | |||
| ||||
On-Site or In-Plant Training | Up to and including 1 month | |||
| ||||
| |||
Alternate Job Title(s) | |||
Behavior Support Specialist (BSS) | |||
Behavioral Health Therapist | |||
Bereavement Counselor | |||
Case Manager | |||
Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC) | |||
Chemical Dependency Coordinator | |||
Chemical Dependency Therapist | |||
Child Care Counselor | |||
Children's Therapist | |||
Clinical Mental Health Counselor | |||
Clinical Social Worker | |||
Clinical Supervisor | |||
College Mental Health Counselor | |||
Correctional Care and Treatment Worker | |||
Correctional Caseworker | |||
Correctional Counselor | |||
Corrections Caseworker | |||
Counseling Psychologist | |||
Counselor | |||
Crisis Clinician | |||
Crisis Intervention Therapist | |||
Direct Care Counselor | |||
Domestic Violence Advocate | |||
Elder Counselor | |||
Employee Assistance Program Counselor (EAP Counselor) | |||
Family Counselor | |||
Grief Counselor | |||
Group Counselor | |||
Group Home Counselor | |||
Human Service Coordinator | |||
Human Service Counselor | |||
Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor | |||
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor | |||
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) | |||
Licensed Mental Health Counselor | |||
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) | |||
Mental Health Case Manager | |||
Mental Health Clinician | |||
Mental Health Counselor | |||
Mental Health Program Specialist | |||
Mental Health Specialist | |||
Mental Health Therapist | |||
Mental Health/Mental Retardation Supports Coordinator (MH/MR Supports Coordinator) | |||
Psychologist | |||
Residential Child Care Counselor | |||
Social Service Worker (SSW) | |||
Therapist | |||
Treatment Coordinator | |||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1995
- 2023 International Compensation Technologies and The Clayton Wallis Company. All Rights Reserved World Wide ictcw.com Member, WorldatWork - Formerly American and Canadian Compensation Associations (ACA/CCA) |