Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker Assess and treat individuals with mental, emotional, or substance abuse problems, including abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and/or other drugs. Activities may include individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, case management, client advocacy, prevention, and education.
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker is Also Know as
In different settings, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker is titled as
- Case Manager
- Clinical Social Worker
- Clinical Therapist
- Clinician
- Counselor
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
- Mental Health Therapist
- Social Worker
- Substance Abuse Counselor
- Therapist
Education and Training of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
- Bachelor in Social Work
- Associate Degree Courses in Social Work
- Masters Degree Courses in Social Work
- Bachelor in Social Work, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Social Work, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Social Work, Other
- Bachelor in Clinical/Medical Social Work
- Associate Degree Courses in Clinical/Medical Social Work
- Masters Degree Courses in Clinical/Medical Social Work
Training Required for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker in different industries are
- Mental Health Counselors
- Healthcare Social Workers
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
- Rehabilitation Counselors
- Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Psychiatrists
- Clinical Neuropsychologists
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Psychiatric Aides
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- Recreational Therapists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Community Health Workers
- Occupational Therapists
- Occupational Therapy Aides
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
What Do Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker do?
- Counsel clients in individual or group sessions to assist them in dealing with substance abuse, mental or physical illness, poverty, unemployment, or physical abuse.
- Collaborate with counselors, physicians, or nurses to plan or coordinate treatment, drawing on social work experience and patient needs.
- Monitor, evaluate, and record client progress with respect to treatment goals.
- Refer patient, client, or family to community resources for housing or treatment to assist in recovery from mental or physical illness, following through to ensure service efficacy.
- Counsel or aid family members to assist them in understanding, dealing with, or supporting the client or patient.
- Modify treatment plans according to changes in client status.
- Plan or conduct programs to prevent substance abuse, combat social problems, or improve health or counseling services in community.
- Supervise or direct other workers who provide services to clients or patients.
- Develop or advise on social policy or assist in community development.
- Interview clients, review records, conduct assessments, or confer with other professionals to evaluate the mental or physical condition of clients or patients.
- Educate clients or community members about mental or physical illness, abuse, medication, or available community resources.
- Assist clients in adhering to treatment plans, such as setting up appointments, arranging for transportation to appointments, or providing support.
- Increase social work knowledge by reviewing current literature, conducting social research, or attending seminars, training workshops, or classes.
Qualities of Good Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- 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.
- 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 that there is a problem.
- 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).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- 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).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- 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).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- 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.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- 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.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Tools Used by Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
- Desktop computers
- Notebook computers
- Personal computers
Technology Skills required for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe PageMaker
- Client records software
- Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
- Database software
- Email software
- Information presentation software
- James Frazier Associates DataStart
- Medical condition coding software
- Medical procedure coding software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Publisher
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Microsoft Word
- Netscape Navigator
- Patient electronic medical record EMR software
- Scheduling software
- Social Solutions ETO
- Social Work Software ClientTouch
- Spreadsheet software
- Web browser software
- Word processing software