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A mental health counselor in tasked to help people and their families to deal with emotions, trauma and mental health. A professional counselor provides coaching and therapy to the patients to help them manage their mental illnesses or stress. They help victims to redirect their emotion s on a purposed course by setting goal for them and routinely administering medication where necessary. Depending on the condition of a person, the counselor adjusts the therapy sessions on management or recovery of the victim’s condition. Mental health counselors work in conditions that vary a lot because mental conditions are caused by a variety of aspects. The victims also vary and they should be handled individual. They may also operate from various settings such as schools, clinics, offices rehabilitation facilities and hospitals. Their key responsibilities as counselors are to provide mental counseling. This means that they assess many conditions such as depression, anger management, blues, anxiety and other disorder. They also deal with more complex issues such as traumatic stress, troubled relationships and grief. They handle people with mental issues that emanate from a certain incident or condition. They also help people with esteem issues.
Crisis Treatment
Most of the mental health issues emanate from some crisis which calls for treatment of such distress. Traumatic events can be hard to bear for some people unless they get expert help from the counselors. Some of the traumatic events that may affect an individual mentally include rape, accidents, violent attacks; natural disasters like sudden poverty and death of love ones. The professional counselors also help suicidal victims who refuse medication or those that threaten to harm themselves and other people (Schweiger & Henderson, 2013). There are instances that mental health problems that were under control, escalated and the individual has to receive professional treatment.
Substance Abuse Counseling
It is also the role of a mental health counselor to help in the rehabilitation process of a victim of substance abuse. Many people have problems with addiction and it becomes a problem when they try to refrain from their habit so they often fall back. Mental health counselors help such individual in their recovery process by understanding the problems that may be affiliated to the abuse of the substance by and individual and trying to solve the problem.
Roles of technology
Technology has laid a opened new strategies of dealing and managing mental health problems through data collection and storage. Devices such as smartphones and tablets have enabled counselors to derive new means of helping and monitoring the progress of their patients. Mobile monitoring of mental health patients is an effective and time saving method that has been achieved through advancement of technology. There are new sophisticate apps that are installed in the patient’s mobile devices that have sensors for data collection on the behavior patterns of a patient in the absence of the counselor. The apps generate signals when an abnormal behavior pattern is recorded which allows for immediate hospitalization or help (Schweiger & Henderson, 2013).
Record keeping
Record keeping is a very vital process in mental health treatment and assessments because it enabled the counselor to follow up with ease the patterns that the patient generates. It should however be noted that personal data of the patient should be kept confidential to be known by the counselor alone and the patient’s immediate family.
Maintenance and security
CACREP Standards also require that the data of the patient be kept secure from bleach. The treatment process should also be managed in a coordinated way that does not humiliate the patient. Counselors should secure the process through security plans that guarantee electronic record security and compensation for data loss or bleach (Schweiger & Henderson, 2013).
Retention of records
According to CACREP Standards, a counselor should retain a patient’s data for not less than 7 years even after the patient recovers (Schweiger & Henderson, 2013). This is to help gather more information on the patient suppose a recurrent mental problem arises.
Mental Health Advocacy
This strategy is aimed at promoting the human rights to people suffering from mental disorders. The strategy also aims at reducing the stigma that is associated with mental illness that often leads to discrimination of a patient and their families. The strategy comprises of collective actions that are aimed at changing the existing structures that hamper effective handling of mental illnesses. It also combines the use of various Medias to create awareness, inform, train, defend, and educate the people with mental problems and eradicate stigmatization.
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