How To Become A Health Support Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a health support specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Stephanie Chalk

The chief duty of a health support specialist is to assist medical professionals in providing quality health care to patients. Just like the medical professionals that they work with, their main goal is to help patients recover from their illnesses as quickly and as effectively as possible.

The duties of a health support specialist vary widely, but in general, they are responsible for creating health plans for patients, coordinating with healthcare services, providing mental health support to patients, and helping patients obtain financial aid from the government. Sometimes, they also participate in outreach programs that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of members of the community.

The minimum education requirements applicants need to have are a degree in psychology, social work, or something similar, along with prior work experience in a relevant position. The average salary for a health support specialist is approximately $27,000 annually.

What general advice would you give to a Health Support Specialist?

Stephanie Chalk

Associate Director of the School of Counseling at Marymount University, Marymount University

Competence in trauma-informed care is very important and will only continue to become more important to our work as counselors in a post-COVID world. Counselors will need to have a strong understanding of how to assess for trauma and environmental stressors, and how trauma can impact clients and communities. Having the skills to adequately assess and support client safety, enhance client choice and empowerment, and the ability to work collaboratively as an interdisciplinary team with other professionals is going to become an even more valuable skill set for counselors. Counselors often work with psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners, school systems, social workers, occupational therapists, and many other professionals as a part of a care team. Having strong collaboration, leadership, and interpersonal skills are becoming more important as the role of counselors is becoming more salient in healthcare.

ScoreHealth Support SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $31,552

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.7

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.55%

Asian 9.42%

Black or African American 11.22%

Hispanic or Latino 14.69%

Unknown 5.83%

White 58.30%

Gender

female 73.25%

male 26.75%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.5

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.4

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a health support specialist

Explore health support specialist education requirements

Most common health support specialist degrees

Bachelor's

58.2 %

Master's

15.3 %

Associate

14.8 %

Start to develop specific health support specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	18.31%
Social Work	14.95%
CPR	13.88%
Mental Health	8.56%
Substance Abuse	4.30%

Complete relevant health support specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New health support specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a health support specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real health support specialist resumes.

Research health support specialist duties and responsibilities

Prevent and manage aggressive behavior among clients and administer CPR in emergency interventions.
Word with individuals with autism.
Train clients on how to improve their ability to carry out ADL's.
Train in trauma inform practice, first aid CPR, and individual medication case management.

Prepare your health support specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your health support specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a health support specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Health Support Specialist Resume templates

Build a professional Health Support Specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Health Support Specialist resume.

Apply for health support specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a health support specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do health support specialists rate their job?

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Health Support Specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020

Cons

Lifting wheelchair bound individuals to change pull ups and pampers, cleaning bowel movements. No support from leadership when problems arrive. Over crowding classrooms which causes stress to staff and individuals.