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Job outlook for health support specialists in the United States
Are health support specialist jobs in demand?
Health support specialist job and salary trends over time
Health support specialist jobs over time
Health support specialist job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 198 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 203 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 205 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 220 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 214 | 0.00% |
Average health support specialist salary over time
Health support specialist salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $31,552 | $15.17 | +3.4% |
| 2024 | $30,512 | $14.67 | +2.3% |
| 2023 | $29,821 | $14.34 | +1.5% |
| 2022 | $29,371 | $14.12 | +1.7% |
| 2021 | $28,891 | $13.89 | +1.6% |
Health support specialist jobs by state
Most common states for health support specialists
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 460 | 66% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,303 | 34% |
| 3 | Vermont | 623,657 | 208 | 33% |
| 4 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 2,323 | 31% |
| 5 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 869 | 30% |
| 6 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 225 | 30% |
| 7 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 3,022 | 29% |
| 8 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 1,750 | 29% |
| 9 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,623 | 29% |
| 10 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 844 | 27% |
| 11 | Arkansas | 3,004,279 | 814 | 27% |
| 12 | Michigan | 9,962,311 | 2,617 | 26% |
| 13 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 148 | 26% |
| 14 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 2,144 | 25% |
| 15 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,479 | 24% |
| 16 | Delaware | 961,939 | 232 | 24% |
| 17 | Indiana | 6,666,818 | 1,506 | 23% |
| 18 | Kentucky | 4,454,189 | 1,014 | 23% |
| 19 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 391 | 23% |
| 20 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 290 | 22% |
Most common cities for health support specialists
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeKalb | 1 | 2% | $33,236 |
| 2 | Eagan | 1 | 2% | $35,384 |
| 3 | Sarasota | 1 | 2% | $26,821 |
| 4 | Boulder | 1 | 1% | $30,250 |
| 5 | Lakeland | 1 | 1% | $26,983 |
| 6 | Port Saint Lucie | 1 | 1% | $26,693 |
| 7 | Waterloo | 1 | 1% | $29,972 |
| 8 | Anchorage | 1 | 0% | $29,631 |
| 9 | Detroit | 1 | 0% | $36,792 |
| 10 | Minneapolis | 1 | 0% | $35,420 |
Health Support Specialist job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of health support specialist experts
Western Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University
Florida Institute of Technology
SUNY College at Oswego
Marymount University
St. John Fisher College
Penn State College of Medicine
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Boston College
Augustana University
University of Baltimore
East Tennessee State University
University of Oregon
Frostburg State University
Muhlenberg College
Point Loma Nazarene University
University of Utah
Dr. Tiffany Bainter PhD LCPC NCC
Associate ProfessorWestern Illinois University
Clinical, Counseling And Applied Psychology
What Health Support Specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Tiffany Bainter PhD LCPC NCC: Education and Credentials: Obtain relevant certifications and advanced degrees in counseling or related fields. Specializations or additional training in areas such as trauma therapy, substance abuse counseling, or marriage and family therapy can increase your market value. Gain Experience: Seek opportunities to gain practical experience through internships, volunteer work, or entry-level positions. Building a strong track record of successful counseling outcomes and client satisfaction can lead to higher-paying roles. Specialize: Consider specializing in a niche area within counseling, such as working with specific populations (e.g., children, veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals) or focusing on particular issues (e.g., trauma, addiction, grief counseling). Specialization often commands higher salaries due to the specialized expertise required. Stay Current: Stay updated with industry trends, research, and best practices in counseling. Attend conferences, workshops, and continuing education programs to enhance your knowledge and skills, making you more valuable to employers. Negotiate Skillfully: When negotiating salary with potential employers, research industry standards and average salaries for your role and location. Highlight your qualifications, experience, and unique skills during negotiations. Be confident, but also realistic and flexible in your salary expectations. Explore Different Settings: Consider working in different settings such as private practice, community mental health centers, schools, hospitals, or corporate counseling programs. Each setting may offer different salary structures and opportunities for advancement. Build a Reputation: Develop a strong professional reputation by delivering quality counseling services, building positive relationships with clients and colleagues, and receiving positive feedback and referrals. A good reputation can lead to increased demand for your services and potentially higher fees. Network and Market Yourself: Network with other professionals in the counseling field, join professional organizations, and promote your services effectively. Building a strong professional network and marketing yourself can lead to new opportunities, higher-paying clients, and consulting or speaking engagements. Consider Additional Income Streams: Explore opportunities for additional income streams such as offering workshops, writing articles or books, providing supervision or consulting services, or teaching courses related to counseling.
What general advice would you give to a Health Support Specialist?
Dr. Pamela Fullerton: All the skills we need to do well in this field are important since we are dealing with people's lives and livelihoods. I believe anyone entering this field needs to recognize the significance and seriousness of our work. In the next 3-5 years, the ever-changing landscape of the population will require us to be continuously working on the competencies and ethical codes mandated through our identities as professional counselors. There is a wonderful counseling model by Ratts and Pederson (2014) called the Counselor-Advocate-Scholar model. I teach this to all my students and during my professional development workshops. This model highlights the three main areas in which we need to be constantly working on and growing in: (1) counseling work, skills, and competencies; (2) advocacy work, skills, and competencies; and (3) research to learn about best practices, recent scholarly innovations to the field, and adding more research to our field. This model can be used in the future as it adapts to whatever changes in the field and population may be occurring/prevalent in the future.
What will help Health Support Specialists increase their earning potential?
Dr. Pamela Fullerton: I think having diverse experiences in the field will be helpful when trying to make yourself stand out from the crowd of other clinicians. I also think adding specialty training and certifications to your resume may help in maximizing salary potential.
What general advice would you give to a Health Support Specialist?
Mariana Juras Ph.D.: Be attuned to your values, passion, skills, and abilities, and also to what market values.
What Health Support Specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Mariana Juras Ph.D.: I believe multiple language and cultural knowledges and experiences are great assets to have, and also to integrate human specific and technology integration with the mental health field, by also considering ethics, culture, and humane relevancy. Neuropsychology is also a developing field and integration with mental health treatment is increasing.
What Health Support Specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Jodi Mullen PhD LMHC RPT-S: The bulk of the work a mental health counselor does is clinical, meaning you meet with clients and provide counseling. There is also record keeping, preparation, and administrative responsibilities. New and seasoned counselors alike spend some time in supervision and consultation with other counselors. Supervision is a time to discuss cases with a more experienced professional where there are opportunities for growth professionally and personally. Consultation involves either meeting with others connected to your clients, like parents of children clients, or with professionals in mental health and other fields that can help the counselor sort out a challenge. In that case it may be an attorney or a trauma specialist.
What will help Health Support Specialists increase their earning potential?
Donna Sheperis PhD, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, ACS, BC-TMH: When I talk to my former students as well as my friends and colleagues in the profession, they all tell me how richly rewarded they are providing a service to people who struggle with aspects of mental health. Being part of someone’s treatment, watching them find their way through trauma that has been burdening them, helping people leave behind a pass that no longer serves them, helping them find a way through genetically predisposed illness, or to overcome thoughts of death or suicide… These are all remarkable journeys to embark on with clients. To have the privilege to be part of healing when people are in crisis and pain and at their most vulnerable is really an awesome honor. Those experiences keep us hopeful and.buoyed throughout our career. When working in such an interpersonally intense profession, carrying that weight can be challenging itself. Some of the more routine tasks of the work that we do can also be burdening. As mental health counselors, we find ourselves making sure that we seek to do our own work in order to be able to do this work for others.
Stephanie Chalk
Associate Director of the School of Counseling at Marymount UniversityMarymount University
Clinical, Counseling And Applied Psychology
What general advice would you give to a Health Support Specialist?
Stephanie Chalk: 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.
What Health Support Specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Stephanie Chalk: My first piece of general advice is to gain knowledge about their state's requirements of post-graduate clinical requirements for independent licensure. When students begin studying at a clinical mental health counseling graduate program, they often believe that once they graduate, they will be free to practice counseling independently and will be licensed. Clinical mental health counseling licensure requires post-graduate clinical supervision and training, and these vary by state or jurisdiction. New graduates should identify what state they want to work in and become familiar with those post-graduation requirements, especially if they are planning to move after graduation. I would also tell new graduates to be selective with where they work after graduation. Some students are very eager to find work after graduation, and finding a good placement can be anxiety-provoking. It is OK to take your time to find a good fit for your interests and needs. Do not be afraid to ask questions about pay, benefits, expectations, supervision, and clinical specializations of the site and the supervisor. There is a wide range of clinical specialties for counselors, and it's worth exploring your interests and finding a site that can fulfill your needs. Lastly, there's many different things that a counselor can do! Besides clinical mental health services, counselors can also get hired as consultants, researchers, organization and advocacy leaders, and more. There are many great career opportunities that new graduates can explore.
John Kiweewa Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorSt. John Fisher College
Wegmans School of Nursing
What soft skills should all Health Support Specialists possess?
John Kiweewa Ph.D.: Receptivity to Feedback: Openness to consistently accept feedback in a respectful way is a vital quality, especially for new graduates. Such openness is important not only to feedback from supervisors but from colleagues and clients. Agreeing to or feeling bound to act on the feedback received is not as important as communicating appreciation for the effort of others in giving feedback. In this case, display of behaviors such as anger, annoyance, frustration, defensiveness, excessive/exaggerated self-criticism, or withdrawal gets in the way of learning and/or being a member of a team.
Appropriate Self-Disclosure: The ability for mental health practitioners to 'use' themselves for the benefit of their clients is one of the cornerstones of effective counseling. Such a quality is most evident when one only shares information about themselves that fits the nature and purpose of the interaction with a particular client. When personal information is revealed, it is tasteful, relevant, and is not upsetting, distracting, or confusing to others. Prospective employers are keenly aware of the ways self-serving or self-aggrandizing disclosure of personal information can negatively impact the ability to provide meaningful services to clients.
Reliability and Follow Through: Mental health professionals work in a helping profession that requires the professional to be consistently dependable, reliable, and able to follow through with tasks and assignments in a timely and thorough manner. This includes meeting deadlines, being punctual to sessions with clients and for agency meetings, being prepared, and having a reputation as one who can be counted on to do their part when functioning as a team or project member.
Flexibility and Adaptability: This quality is most evident when a mental health counseling professional consistently demonstrates a willingness to change or compromise in the face of new information, circumstances, and contexts. Situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, require mental health practitioners to have an openness to solutions that match the needs of their service recipients and organizations.
Sense of Humor: There is little to cheer about in the professional life of mental health professionals. We spend the majority of our working time listening to the most painful and vulnerable aspects of people's lives. This quality is most evident when a mental health counselor assumes an orientation to life that acknowledges to self and others the value of looking at the "lighter side" of life to maintain a balance; when they find enjoyment in laughing with others and recognize laughter as a way of reducing tension and as an important aspect of social discourse.
Confidence Balanced with Humility: Confidence in one's abilities (self-efficacy) is a general challenge for beginning mental health counselors. Some may appear over-confident as a way to compensate for lack of experience in the field and to project an image of competence. It is, therefore, important that new graduate is able to act with self-assurance by consistently expressing themselves in a clear, deliberate, and unassuming manner. It is not helpful to "put on airs" or flaunt knowledge or skills in order to bring attention to oneself. What is important is to convey appreciation for the privilege to partake in other people's life journeys and struggles.
Martha Peaslee Levine M.D.
Medical Director of the PHP and IOP, Director of the Office of Professional Mental HealthPenn State College of Medicine
Adolescent Medicine, Psychiatry
What soft skills should all Health Support Specialists possess?
Martha Peaslee Levine M.D.: Good communication skills are important. Working as a therapist involves interacting with someone. It will be important to demonstrate being able to listen effectively and being able to communicate clearly. Active listening is important in therapy and in an interview. Be engaged; listen to the interviewer so that you are clearly providing the information that they need. For example, I often ask interviewees to tell me about a case that they found rewarding or challenging. From this, I want to know how someone thinks through a clinical situation. I want to hear how they describe their client (anonymously, of course) and how they put together the important parts of the story. If it was challenging and they now recognize ways to handle it differently, that lets me know that they have thought about this. It also shows that they are willing to reflect on difficult situations and learn from them. If someone cannot relate a story or discuss a client with me, that makes me wonder about their skills as a therapist and their interest in their patients. These clinical interactions can come from your work in school, shadowing someone in training, or internships. It is recognizing and describing the important elements of the case. Another important skill is good written communication. Check your resumes for spelling mistakes. Reread any emails to make certain they are clear. Send thank-you notes. Keep things professional--use the interviewer's professional title when you write. Be on time and have a question or two to ask about the position or place of employment. Examples can be, what are they looking for in a counselor? What have they found the most rewarding working in this office? Find your own go-to question, but interviewers what to know that you are interested.
Dr. Raymond Ortega Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorUniversity of Arkansas at Little Rock
Rehabilitation Counseling Program
What skills stand out on Health Support Specialist resumes?
Dr. Raymond Ortega Ph.D.: The job market for rehabilitation counselors has changed substantially over the years. Initially, it was limited to public sector agencies but now includes several private and non-profit opportunities. As a result, the requisite skillset has also increased. The essential skills that "stand out" include knowledge of career and occupational standards and requirements, legal and regulatory standards, physical and psychological disability, and counseling skills.
Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.
Associate Professor of the Practice, Program Director, Master's Program in Mental Health CounselingBoston College
Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology
What soft skills should all Health Support Specialists possess?
Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.: -compassion
-active listening
-perspective-taking
-open-mindedness and respect for differences
-humility
-curiosity and critical observation
-problem recognition and analytical thinking
-creativity and flexibility
-presentation skills
Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen
Associate ProfessorAugustana University
Psychology Department
What skills stand out on Health Support Specialist resumes?
Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen: In Mental Health Counseling, the ability to work with people from various cultural backgrounds is paramount. Training in multicultural psychology, diversity, and inclusion are all essential in our pluralistic society. I would also emphasize training in empirically supported treatments and a clear theoretical orientation grounded in scientific literature. Finally, the recent pandemic has accelerated the use of teletherapy and remote counseling--effectiveness in connecting with people through technology and making the most of an adapted model for therapy will be very important.
Sepideh Soheilian Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Baltimore
Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences
What Health Support Specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Sepideh Soheilian Ph.D.: If a recent college graduate decides to take a gap year between their undergraduate studies and starting a master's program in Counseling Psychology, my advice would be to try their best to be exposed to or engage in either 1) experiences in the field of mental health, or 2) experiences that will strengthen their social science research skills. Engaging in these types of experiences such as working as an administrative assistant in a private practice, or volunteering on a psychiatric unit at a hospital will provide greater exposure to the field of mental health and hopefully, help the graduate determine if entering the mental health field would be the right fit for their career expectations, goals, and values.
Jamie Brown Ph.D.
ProfessorEast Tennessee State University
Department of Counseling and Human Services
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Health Support Specialists?
Jamie Brown Ph.D.: We know that many of our graduates are drawn to the field of Human Services due to the issues they have faced in their own lives. We have seen an uptick in students sharing the fact they have struggled with Adverse Childhood Experiences during our remote teaching and advising. We need to be aware of Trauma-Informed teaching and outreach as a program and as a university.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Health Support Specialist job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Julie Alonzo Ph.D.: With so much uncertainty about the future, many school districts and institutes of higher education imposed hiring freezes in the spring of 2020 and started the 2020-2021 academic year without the influx of new hires that we would typically see at the start of a new school year. The approval of vaccines with demonstrated efficacy against COVID-19 should, hopefully, prompt a return to a more normal job market in the coming spring. The job market will likely be quite competitive, with new graduates vying for open positions with those who were not offered positions in education last spring.
Given the challenges that schools have faced during the pandemic, I believe we will see an increasing need for culturally-competent, highly-skilled educators who can think critically and allocate limited resources creatively. Schools across the country are likely to struggle with budget shortfalls, as high unemployment rates reduce states' tax bases and as other high-priority needs compete for the limited money available. Thus, finding jobs might be more challenging than in the past.
In terms of the skills that will be needed to be competitive in the job market, the pandemic and resulting move to remote instruction for many in education will increase the demand for educators with expertise in developing literacy and numeracy, particularly in the early grades (K-5). Those with an understanding of how to use student performance data to screen for students at risk, to identify their areas of need, to provide instructional supports to meet those needs, and to monitor the progress being made so that instruction can be adjusted on a regular basis will be in high demand.
In addition, disparities in access to educational technology and the resulting disproportionality in "learning loss" as a result of the move to remote instruction for students from different demographic backgrounds will increase the demand for educators who have experience working with students from low-income families and those experiencing homelessness, as well as demand for educators who have demonstrated their ability to work effectively with students from different ethnicities.
With the continued focus on increasing the diversity of the educator workforce to better match demographics in the United States, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Southeast Asian educators will continue to be in high demand.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Health Support Specialists?
Dr. Jennifer Flinn Ph.D.: It is far too early to determine this, but it is reasonable to assume that the pandemic will have an impact on students graduating this year and next. Some graduates will have little trouble finding jobs, while others may feel the impact of an economy where budget cuts have limited available jobs.
Erika Bagley Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorMuhlenberg College
Department of Developmental Psychology
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Health Support Specialists to find work opportunities?
Erika Bagley Ph.D.: The pandemic has really led to a boom in online therapy, teaching, and recreation. So, where a job opportunity is located may be wherever graduates find themselves. Moving to a particular city or geographic area for career opportunities is likely not going to be as important as having skills to facilitate remote interactions. Even if an effective vaccine comes through, there are many people who have found that receiving services and learning online to be a better fit for them, so I don't see the need for this skill set going away in the future.
How do you envision technology impacting Health Support Specialists in the next 5 years?
Max Butterfield Ph.D.: Technology is a tool. It will never replace human interaction, but it will continue to shape the way we relate to one another. My hope for technology is that we'll figure out how to use it to make society a better place for everyone. Too often, technology facilitates our worst tendencies. Social media, for instance, could be an amazing tool for good, but we're using it to sell ads to the highest bidder, to divide ourselves into increasingly isolated groups, and to spread misinformation like wildfire. It's a shame, and I hope we can do better soon!
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Health Support Specialists to find work opportunities?
Amanda Bakian: My impression is that the job market for graduates with a degree in statistics is still likely to be strong in 2020 - demand for quantitative skills remain high, and work can be done remotely. In an academic setting, individuals with this skill set are in short supply.