Post job

Explore jobs

Find specific jobs

Explore careers

Explore professions

Best companies

Explore companies

OverviewJobsSalaryResume

Skills

What They DoEducationCertificationsDemographicsJob DescriptionHow To HireBest CompaniesBest StatesBest CitiesRemote JobsJob OutlookCompareFAQsPart Time jobsEntry Level jobsFull Time jobsWork From Home jobs
zippia ai icon

Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Mental health associate skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted experts
Kim Jones Ph.D.,
Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen
Mental health associate example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical mental health associate skills. We ranked the top skills for mental health associates based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.9% of mental health associate resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a mental health associate needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 mental health associate skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how mental health associates use patients:
  • Provide delegated components of nursing care to patients including monitoring, specimen collection, and psycho education.
  • Provided direct mental health clinical treatment to a variety of individuals which included children/adolescents and geriatric patients.

2. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how mental health associates use customer service:
  • Supported clinicians by ensuring and facilitating efficient operations; enhanced customer service and improved center productivity.
  • Provided responsive customer service to clients and stakeholders.

3. Vital Signs

Vital signs are a set of values indicating different body systems' performance. They are measurements of the body's most basic functions. The four major vital signs used in medicine to assess a patient are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.

Here's how mental health associates use vital signs:
  • Monitored vital signs and checked that monitoring equipment were functioning correctly.
  • Assist patients with activities of daily living, administer EKG's, monitor vital signs, and obtain and distribute specimens.

4. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how mental health associates use cpr:
  • Received certification in CPR and Lifesaving.
  • Respond to psychiatric emergencies.CPR certified.

5. Safety Checks

Safety checks include all routine maintenance, preventive measures, safety protocols, policies, and regulations performed to ensure a safe working environment. They also include proposals on better management, equipment, installation, and substance disposal methods.

Here's how mental health associates use safety checks:
  • Monitored patient safety via safety checks while assessing behavioral management needs.
  • Conducted and documented 15-minute safety checks according to policy.

6. Social Work

Here's how mental health associates use social work:
  • Ensured efficiency of patient care practices through effective partnership with social workers, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses and other professionals.
  • Assisted Social Work with communication with other facilities regarding transfers, as well as gathering collateral information regarding patient's histories.

Choose from 10+ customizable mental health associate resume templates

Build a professional mental health associate resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your mental health associate resume.

7. Crisis Intervention

Here's how mental health associates use crisis intervention:
  • Supervised in residence/community dwelling individuals and assisted/documented: Life goals Medication management Crisis intervention
  • Assisted in setting and enforcing behavior management, which often included providing crisis intervention as necessary to resolve conflicts.

8. Substance Abuse

Here's how mental health associates use substance abuse:
  • Work with a variety of mental illnesses, personality disorders, developmental disabilities and substance abuse/addiction.
  • Assisted multidisciplinary team with acute inpatient psychiatric and substance abuse treatment for adults and adolescence.

9. Immunization

Here's how mental health associates use immunization:
  • Worked with physician advocates to increase disease awareness in the adult immunization market.
  • Provided programmatic support to local partners and Public Health Nurses during immunization clinics.

10. CPI

CPI Consumer Price Index is a monthly comprehensive measurement of the prices of goods and services representing the economy's consumption expenditure. This presents the inflation or rising of prices and deflation or falling prices. CPI keeps track of the costs of around 700 goods and services utilized by a typical household, and CPI shows how their price change each month. The changes in CPI are used to assess price changes related to the cost of living.

Here's how mental health associates use cpi:
  • Maintain a safe and therapeutic milieu on adolescent boys under Non-Violent CPI training.
  • Established therapeutic rapport and used verbal de-escalation + CPI techniques as needed to prevent patient restraint.

11. Therapeutic Interventions

Here's how mental health associates use therapeutic interventions:
  • Provided identification and treatment of children in need of assistance with behavioral or emotional problems and provide therapeutic interventions for clients.
  • Provided therapeutic interventions through teaching positive functional coping skills and encouraged behavior modification through positive reinforcement.

12. Anger Management

Anger management is a program that helps with anger prevention and control. The process involves identifying signs of anger and learning how to prevent outbursts or destructive behavior.

Here's how mental health associates use anger management:
  • Conducted educational classes with patients focusing on anger management, drug abuse, self-harming behaviors and healthy relationships.
  • Created and co- facilitated an assertiveness training group and an anger management group for adolescents.

13. Rehabilitation

Here's how mental health associates use rehabilitation:
  • Light house Therapeutic Rehabilitation Program Georgetown, Ky * Provided individual and group therapy for chronically mentally ill adults.
  • Assist mentally impaired or emotional disturbed patients with routine, physical, emotional, physiological or rehabilitation as directed.

14. Therapeutic Environment

Here's how mental health associates use therapeutic environment:
  • Maintain a safe and therapeutic environment for patients while implementing and creating a consistent schedule of daily educational and recreational activities.
  • Developed and maintained a therapeutic environment for children and adolescents by implementing therapeutic activities and structured routines for children.

15. Direct Patient Care

Here's how mental health associates use direct patient care:
  • Provided direct patient care to patients in inpatient setting by participating in treatment planning and implementation.
  • Worked under the supervision of the RN to provide direct patient care on both the Adolescent and Adult Psychiatric Inpatient Units.
top-skills

What skills help Mental Health Associates find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on mental health associate resumes?

Kim Jones Ph.D.

Professor, Chair of Clinical Concentration, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The necessary skills for today's market include the ability to implement evidence-informed mental health approaches, the ability to display empathy, knowledge of crisis intervention models, organizational skills, good work ethic, both verbal and written communication skills, cultural competence, and the ability to adapt to changing technology.

What hard/technical skills are most important for mental health associates?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Obviously, mastering the technology used in teletherapy and virtual counseling is essential. Further, the use of computer programs for therapy notes, documentation, and diagnosis is also important. Assessment and psychometric abilities are also important as psychotherapy research has been very clear about the important role of outcome measurement and objective assessment in psychotherapy. When prospective clinicians demonstrate the ability to work with numbers (and the software needed to make them useful), they show an openness to the objective assessment of their work.

What mental health associate skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lynette Bartucci

Lynette Bartucci, M.S., CRC, APCC#7835 Clinics Director / Adjunct Faculty, California State University - Fresno

I would recommend they try to enhance/include computer skills, such as Microsoft programs, including Excel and PowerPoint, and programs such as Zoom. Due to the pandemic, we continue to see a trend of "work from home" options needing essential computer and technology skills. Also, to polish up on grammar and appropriate English vocabulary. Again, a lot of communication needs to be done professionally through emails, texts, memos, and documents.

What type of skills will young mental health associates need?

Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D.Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Professor, The University of Texas

Graduates of the social work profession need to be able to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and mobilize communities to bring about social, economic, political, or environmental change, in addition to being involved in social policy development.

Skills in research, to study social issues, with the intention of developing social policy or micro-level approaches to practice to improve people's lives, and training in relation to multiculturalism, cultural competence, cultural humility practice is vital.

Key skills include:
-Collaboration
-Critical thinking
-Ethics in evidence based-practice
-Assessment, intervention, and evaluation
-Social work competencies to inform behaviors.
-Administration and management
-Community practice
-Policy practice

What soft skills should all mental health associates possess?

Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.

Associate Professor of the Practice, Program Director, Master's Program in Mental Health Counseling, Boston College

-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
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about mental health associate

List of mental health associate skills to add to your resume

Mental health associate skills

The most important skills for a mental health associate resume and required skills for a mental health associate to have include:

  • Patients
  • Customer Service
  • Vital Signs
  • CPR
  • Safety Checks
  • Social Work
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Substance Abuse
  • Immunization
  • CPI
  • Therapeutic Interventions
  • Anger Management
  • Rehabilitation
  • Therapeutic Environment
  • Direct Patient Care
  • Patient Safety
  • Mental Illness
  • Chemical Dependency
  • Public Health
  • Patient Behavior
  • Therapeutic Milieu
  • Direct Supervision
  • Treatment Programs
  • Compassion
  • Behavioral Issues
  • Phone Calls
  • Crisis Management
  • MHA
  • Mental Health Issues
  • Home Health
  • Autism
  • de-Escalation Techniques
  • Restraints
  • Data Entry
  • Applied Behavior Analysis
  • Cleanliness
  • Social Relationships
  • Client Wellness
  • Eating Disorders
  • Community Resources
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Role Model
  • Incident Reports
  • Blood Pressure
  • Provides Supervision
  • Provide Emotional Support
  • Emotional Support
  • ADL
  • Group Therapy Sessions
  • Crisis Intervention Training

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse community and social services jobs