MHT – Mental Health Technology

This course is a survey of the history and future directions of social services with an emphasis on mental health. It is an overview of how people learn, act, and change within social systems.

Provides the student with an understanding of the major theories related to counseling strategies and techniques. Covers a variety of helping strategies considered to be effective in helping people reduce stress and conflict and resolve problems more effectively.

Presents an introduction to casework and an overview of techniques employed in interviewing. Covers principles and processes of the social treatment model of social services. Issues such as confidentiality, case records, nonverbal and verbal communication, role-playing, and helping skills to reduce stressors will be addressed. Practical exercises in various techniques and methods used in various areas of mental health.

Reviews the addictive personality from the historical, physiological, social, cultural, genetic, and legal perspectives. Drug terminology and classifications will be discussed. The course emphasizes the diagnosis and assessment of chemical dependency, counseling issues and techniques related to addictive behavior, and the issues and problems of recovery, growth, and relapse.

This comprehensive training program is designed to prepare participants for the Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) certification. The course covers the foundational principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and emphasizes the skills necessary for implementing behavior-analytic services under the supervision of a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

Creates a climate that encourages learning, understanding, insight, and skills in the area of self and one’s interactions with groups. Current therapeutic approaches in group services are explored. Approaches included one Psychoanalytic, Adlerian, Existential, Person-Centered, Gestalt, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and Reality Therapy. The course provides for experiential awareness of group processes and promoting personal development.

Field work experience at various mental health agencies: case management, building therapeutic relationships, supervised treatment planning/implementation, work with individual clients, group facilitation, reporting, and recording.

This course accompanies and is taken in conjunction with MHT2260 (Practicum). It is small group discussion of students’ actual activities during their field experiences with a focus on relating these experiences to the conceptual, theoretical and technical principles of the students’ mental health training. Focus of discussion will be on students’ ability to relate their actual field experiences to their motivation toward entering the helping professions, with a consideration of how the experience is contributing to the students’ growth and development in the process of becoming a mental health professional. Discussions will center on goals and objectives as established for MHT2260 (Practicum), students will be asked to present experiences, problems and difficulties with a view toward receiving feedback from the group relative to prospective alternatives or solutions for any problems that may exist. Students will keep a journal of their practicum experiences and will write a final evaluation/position paper on the total experience. Journals and evaluation/position papers to be submitted at the end of the semester.