A behavioral health professional is faced with the responsibility of effecting a behavioral change on others to improve their health and well-being. You will observe and assess individuals' personalities, health, behaviors and design plan to help them tackle their life obstacles and overcome them through behavioral changes.
You will provide counseling and advice to individuals suffering from drug use disorder and help them deal with the addiction. You are also expected to advise and help physically limited people and those suffering from a mental health condition. A behavioral health professional works with other health professionals to help in improving the emotional and behavioral health of their patients.
To work as a behavioral health professional, you are required to be patient, empathetic, and caring. You should also be good at organization, creative and flexible, emphatic and pragmatic. You are expected to have a bachelor's or associate degree in a related field. The salary for this position is in the range of $32,000-45,000 per year.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Behavioral Health Professional. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.29 an hour? That's $38,036 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 81,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Behavioral Health Professionals have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Emotional skills, Communication skills and Organizational skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Behavioral Health Professional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 61.8% of Behavioral Health Professionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.8% of Behavioral Health Professionals have master's degrees. Even though most Behavioral Health Professionals have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Behavioral Health Professional. When we researched the most common majors for a Behavioral Health Professional, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Behavioral Health Professional resumes include Associate Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Behavioral Health Professional. In fact, many Behavioral Health Professional jobs require experience in a role such as Cashier. Meanwhile, many Behavioral Health Professionals also have previous career experience in roles such as Internship or Sales Associate.