What does a Behavioral Health Professional do?
Behavioral health professionals are responsible for providing direction and counsel to individuals who are dealing with behavioral health challenges such as mental illness, addiction, and physical limitations. They often work with a team of other specialists in providing recommendations for a patient's behavioral and emotional care. These health care professionals assist in increasing public awareness on topics that will improve mental and physical health. In a school setting, they are responsible for facilitating classroom management training to help address behavioral or emotional issues among students.
Behavioral health professional responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real behavioral health professional resumes:
- Work with children with special needs (ADHD, Austism, etc . )
- Instruct over two hundr staff per year on CPR.
- Maintain confidentiality of clients in accordance with HIPAA statutes.
- Maintain records in accordance with applicable standards and HIPAA regulations.
- Design PowerPoint presentations for orientation at UNM for high school students.
- Log all progress using the appropriate paperwork and used ABA methods to shape behavior.
- Work in home with children diagnose with autism providing mental heath support for children and there families.
- Work with children with various types of autism, teaching social skills to help in social setting and everyday living.
- Conduct adaptive skills training, lead social skills groups, complete both in- home parent training and functional behavior assessments.
- Develop and modify crisis recovery plans in conjunction with member, member s family, support and rehabilitation services and providers.
- Learned and implement evidence-based ABA methods.
- Participate in the initial evaluation and admission of crisis patients.
- Support business strategies and implement quality- improvement in patients' lives.
- Clean classrooms offices and bathrooms; wash windows and mirrors.
- Participate and provide client-centered advocacy in IEP meetings involving multidisciplinary team.
Behavioral health professional skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Behavioral Health Professionals are proficient in Behavioral Health, Patients, and Social Work. They’re also known for soft skills such as Emotional skills, Communication skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Behavioral Health Professionals that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Behavioral Health, 18%
Provide behavioral health clearance assessments of inmates placed in disciplinary, restrictive and protective housing.
- Patients, 9%
Provide psychiatric evaluations/diagnosis./Medication management, treatment plans acute and chronic adult patients, Electronic charting.
- Social Work, 9%
Worked closely with nurse manager, social worker, unit director, psychiatric doctor, medical doctor, and nursing staff.
- Autism, 8%
Provide 1:1 in-home & community support for children/adolescents who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders/Intellectual Disabilities and their families.
- CPR, 7%
Maintain certification through the Maine DOE-certified Educational Technician III, and certification in CPR.
- Crisis Intervention, 4%
Proved crisis intervention and negotiation throughout each day, including suicide intervention.
"behavioral health," "patients," and "social work" are among the most common skills that behavioral health professionals use at work. You can find even more behavioral health professional responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. Another essential skill to perform behavioral health professional duties is communication skills. Behavioral health professionals responsibilities require that "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." Behavioral health professionals also use communication skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "create and maintain bulletin boards, newsletters and other member marketing & communication materials. "
Organizational skills. This is an important skill for behavioral health professionals to perform their duties. For an example of how behavioral health professional responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a behavioral health professional: "work with emotionally and behaviorally challenging children, assist with social skills, organizational skills, anger management and other emotional issues".
Problem-solving skills. A big part of what behavioral health professionals do relies on "problem-solving skills." You can see how essential it is to behavioral health professional responsibilities because "social workers must analyze their clients’ complex situations and develop practical solutions." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical behavioral health professional tasks: "de-escalated clients and created solutions to the patients immediate needs. "
Interpersonal skills. Lastly, "interpersonal skills" is an important element of what a behavioral health professional does. Behavioral health professional responsibilities require this skill because "social workers must be able to work with different groups of people." This resume example highlights how behavioral health professional duties rely on this skill: "maintained hipaa, interpersonal human relation skills; caring customer service skills. "
The three companies that hire the most behavioral health professionals are:
- Corizon Health35 behavioral health professionals jobs
- Woodfords Family Services35 behavioral health professionals jobs
- HealthFitness33 behavioral health professionals jobs
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Compare different behavioral health professionals
Behavioral health professional vs. Intensive in-home counselor
An Intensive In-Home Counselor conducts individual counseling sessions for parents and deals with delicate issues like sexual addiction. They also prepare progress reports for clients.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between behavioral health professionals and intensive in-home counselor. For instance, behavioral health professional responsibilities require skills such as "behavioral health," "patients," "social work," and "autism." Whereas a intensive in-home counselor is skilled in "family therapy," "intensive in-home," "therapeutic interventions," and "discharge planning." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Intensives in-home counselor tend to make the most money working in the utilities industry, where they earn an average salary of $56,398. In contrast, behavioral health professionals make the biggest average salary, $54,895, in the hospitality industry.intensives in-home counselor tend to reach higher levels of education than behavioral health professionals. In fact, intensives in-home counselor are 11.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Behavioral health professional vs. Family therapist
A Family Therapist works with couples and families to help ameliorate marital and family issues. They can work in hospitals, treatment programs, government agencies, health organizations, and private practices.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that behavioral health professional responsibilities requires skills like "behavioral health," "autism," "cpr," and "applied behavior analysis." But a family therapist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "child abuse," "mental health," "foster care," and "fft."
Family therapists may earn a higher salary than behavioral health professionals, but family therapists earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $50,267. On the other hand, behavioral health professionals receive higher pay in the hospitality industry, where they earn an average salary of $54,895.family therapists earn higher levels of education than behavioral health professionals in general. They're 34.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Behavioral Health Professionals in the next 3-5 years?
Lesley Casarez Ph.D.
Director, Quality Enhancement Plan Program Coordinator, M.S. Professional School Counseling Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Angelo State University
Behavioral health professional vs. Program counselor
A Program Counselor is an essential part of a school's faculty. It's the counselor's responsibility to ensure that students are benefiting from the school's educational curriculum. This person is also tasked to help students resolve issues and problems that may hinder any educational progress. They are also part of the disciplinary team intended to instill good morals, ethics, and decency in students. The Program Counselor is one of the teacher or professor who has expertise or has a high educational degree in a particular subject or field.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from behavioral health professional resumes include skills like "behavioral health," "autism," "applied behavior analysis," and "bhp," whereas a program counselor is more likely to list skills in "community integration," "behavioral interventions," "physical disabilities," and "relapse prevention. "
Program counselors earn the highest salary when working in the health care industry, where they receive an average salary of $41,845. Comparatively, behavioral health professionals have the highest earning potential in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $54,895.When it comes to education, program counselors tend to earn similar degree levels compared to behavioral health professionals. In fact, they're 2.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Behavioral health professional vs. Youth mentor
Youth mentors are adult individuals who are responsible for creating programs to improve the well-being of young people by providing role models that can support them academically and socially. These mentors must educate the community on issues related to mental health while making regular home visits to youth and young adults. They should provide direct care and assistance to adolescents who are with substance abuse issues by creating an educational curriculum on the said topic. Youth mentors are also required to collaborate with mental health professionals and social workers to coordinate counseling efforts.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between behavioral health professionals and youth mentors, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a behavioral health professional might have more use for skills like "behavioral health," "patients," "autism," and "applied behavior analysis." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of youth mentors require skills like "mental health," "eating disorders," "academic support," and "role model. "
In general, youth mentors earn the most working in the professional industry, with an average salary of $32,145. The highest-paying industry for a behavioral health professional is the hospitality industry.youth mentors reach lower levels of education compared to behavioral health professionals, in general. The difference is that they're 6.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.9% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of behavioral health professional
Updated January 8, 2025
