Mental health professionals are essential to the general well-being of our society. Many widespread social issues like addiction, unemployment, and relationship problems have mental health implications. For this reason, we need qualified mental health professionals to intervene, providing individuals and families with the tools and support they need to redesign their lives. Mental health centres connect various clients to resources, offer counselling services, and help provide basic needs.

Working at a mental health centre can be extremely rewarding for anyone seeking a career that allows them to make a positive impact on their communities. However, the reward comes with major responsibilities. Being a mental health professional requires a wide range of specialized skills. Our Community Service and Addictions Worker diploma program will provide all the key competencies needed to land a position in a mental health centre and thrive within it.

Effective Mental Health Workers Must Be Active Listeners

Before you can help your clients to rebuild their lives amidst a mental health crisis, you must know how to listen attentively to their struggles. Active listening is a communication method that goes beyond listening to a person’s words and involves seeking understanding. Some common applications you’ll use after community service training include asking follow-up questions, non-verbal cues, and paraphrasing. 

Active listening helps mental health professionals accumulate information about their clients’ situations and determine the proper intervention. Your functional listening skills can also help you to ensure the safety of clients and those around them. Mental health professionals must know what probing questions to ask to assess risk.

Empathy Is Needed for Those Considering Community Service Training

Even though you may not have dealt with the same mental health struggles as your client, you must be able to understand their experience. Empathy facilitates common ground and fosters effective therapeutic alliances. It improves your ability to intuit your clients’ needs as you can easily imagine what you need in the same predicament. Clients can sense your empathy and, as a result, can more efficiently open up to you, increasing their potential for progressing during their mental health treatment.

Case Management Skills Will Support Your Success

Mental health centres, big and small, produce large volumes of paperwork. When you start working after earning your community service diploma, you must understand case management to ensure that daily operations at your mental health facility run smoothly, no client needs are forgotten, follow-ups are completed when necessary, and records are readily available for therapeutic or legal reasons. Case management best practice is covered at length throughout our training program, and you’ll be fully prepared to maintain an efficient system for helping all clients.

Learn case management and many more industry-specific skills in career college

Mental Health Professionals Must Be Resilient

After completing community service training at a career college, you will have many positive experiences that remind you why you’ve chosen to dedicate your career to mental health treatment. With that being said, since many of your clients will be experiencing crises, you may be exposed to distressing situations. 

Resilience can be built and is significantly related to your self-care practices, support system, and ability to establish clear boundaries between work and home life. Our Community Service and Addictions Worker diploma program provides all the skills and knowledge you’ll need to face the unique challenges of working in a mental health centre, including counselling, ethics, report writing, and much more.