The Mental Health Technician Program

Curriculum

Mental Health Technician Program Modules
Our 352-hour Mental Health Technician program is divided into 14 courses, which cover a number of topics including suicide awareness, developmental influences, and various communication methods.

Program Orientation: Mental Health Technician

• Initiate the Mental Health Technician Program

Fundamentals of HIPAA

• Describe the basic requirements of HIPAA.
• Understand the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
• Understand the HIPAA Security Rule.
• Describe the HITECH Act.
• Explain Regulations for Business Associates.
• Summarize HIPAA Documentation and Training.
• Review Applied HIPAA Security for Healthcare Professionals.

Communication and Customer Service in the Healthcare Office

• Identify the various types and styles of communication used in a healthcare office.
• Review how verbal, non-verbal, and written communication skills contribute to patient experience and outcome in a health care office.
• Identify professional communication techniques for a healthcare office, including interviewing techniques and use of medical terminology and patient-accessible language.
• Explore modified communication for patients with special considerations.
• Outline protocols for providing customer service for a health care office.

Patient Care Coordination and Education

• Review how to administer and coordinate general patient care according to professional best practices.
• Explore the role and responsibilities in administering patient care.
• Explore the role and responsibilities in facilitating patient education.

Comprehensive Medical Terminology

• Analyze how medical terms are built using common word parts.
• Properly spell, define, and pronounce medical terms associated with each of the major body systems .
• Identify and define the word parts most frequently associated with the major body systems
• Interpret common abbreviations used in medical terminology and cautions to remember when using them

Pharmacology Basics for Medical Assisting

• Identify the classifications of drugs.
• Review indications, side effects, and adverse reactions of various classifications of drugs.
• Interpret accepted abbreviations used in reference to medications.
• Explain how to use drug reference guides.
• Describe the rights of proper drug administration.
• Describe the routes of administration for medication.
• Explain how to prepare and administer the most common types of medications.
• Identify the four steps of pharmacokinetics.
• Explore the guidelines for sending orders for prescriptions.
• Calculate correct dosage of medication for administration.
• Convert between household and metric systems of measurement.
• Identify commonly used abbreviations in medication dosage calculation.

Infection Control

• Review the causes and diagnostic methods of various infectious and communicable diseases.
• Explore the protective measures required to prevent infection.
• Outline the treatments and protective measures required to manage and control the spread of infectious disease.
• Identify procedures and protocols for responding to infection control.

Testing and Laboratory Procedures

• Identify how specimens are collected and handled.
• Explore procedures and processes used in obtaining blood and urine samples.
• Outline the standard components of vision and hearing screening tests.
• Review common techniques and processes frequently used in medical laboratories.

Medical Administrative Assistant

• Describe the differences between common healthcare delivery models.
• Describe the types of services typically offered in medical offices, including general and specialty services.
• Define ancillary services and alternative therapies.

EKG and Cardiovascular

• Identify the basic anatomy of the heart.
• List the steps needed to ensure proper functioning of ECG/EKG equipment (calibration, standardization).
• List the equipment and supplies needed to perform an ECG/EKG procedure.
• Identify the placement of standard limb leads and precordial (chest) leads on a patient undergoing an ECG/EKG procedure.
• Identify waveforms, intervals, and segments in EKG/ECG readings .
• Identify artifacts, signal distortions, and electrical interference in EKG/ECG readings.
• Describe ways to minimize artifacts during EKG/ECG readings.
• Describe abnormal or emergent ECG/EKG results, including arrhythmia and dysrhythmia.

Comprehensive Electronic Health Records

• Explain the importance of clinical standards in the development of interoperable electronic health records.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how electronic health records are used in physician practices and other outpatient settings.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how electronic health records are used in hospitals.

Psychology and Psychiatric Disorders

• Develop a working knowledge of the content domains of psychology.
• Identify key characteristics of major content domains in psychology (e.g., cognition and learning, developmental, biological, and socio-cultural).
• Analyze scientific reasoning to interpret behavior and Identify distinguish normal behavior from abnormal behavior.
• Incorporate several appropriate levels of complexity (e.g., cellular, individual, group/system, and society/cultural) to explain behavior.
• Interpret, design, and conduct basic psychological research and describe research methods used by psychologists including their respective advantages and disadvantages.
• Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomena and identify basic biological, psychological, and social components of behavioral explanations (e.g., inferences, observations, and operational definitions and interpretation).
• Incorporate several appropriate levels of complexity (e.g., cellular, individual, group/system, and society/cultural) to explain behavior.
• Develop a working knowledge of the content domains of psychology and identify key characteristics of major content domains in psychology (e.g., cognition and learning).
• Apply ethical standards to psychological science and practice and discuss relevant ethical issues that reflect principles in the APA Code of Ethics.

Program Completion: Mental Health Technician

• Prepare to take the next steps after program completion.

Course Requirements