Mental Health Therapist
Class Specifications – H.65
Mental Health Therapist I – 9151
Mental Health Therapist II – 9152
Mental Health Therapist Supervisor – 9153
February, 2009
Series Concept
Mental Health Therapists provide therapeutic mental health services to children, adolescents, and adults in individual, dyadic, group and family settings. They perform psychosocial assessments, develop clinical treatment plans and establish clinical treatment contracts, and provide direct mental health treatment services. They perform crisis intervention and may identify the need for an assessment of a patient’s degree of lethality and/or grave disability (“5150 assessment”). They may provide clinical consultation to staff and referral agencies, provide education and training to staff and patients, and identify and coordinate referral resources.
Mental Health Therapist I
Under the supervision of a licensed mental health professional, positions at this level perform the full range of duties described in the Series Concept. Their reports and progress notes typically require the co-signature of a licensed mental health professional. This is the journey level of the series.
Mental Health Therapist II
Positions at this level work independently with minimal supervision to perform the full range of duties described in the Series Concept, typically handling the more complex cases. They may act as consultants for a specialty area in a particular field of therapy, and/or train internal and external mental health clinicians in a specialty area, and/or provide direct clinical supervision to interns and/or unlicensed staff.
Mental Health Therapist Supervisor
Positions at this level supervise lower-level mental health therapists and may supervise other support personnel, provide clinical supervision to interns, and may coordinate or manage a mental health program. They manage the most difficult or high-risk cases. They may provide training to internal and external mental health clinicians. They may initiate and/or have direct involvement in extramural grant development and submission, publication submission, and/or presenting at a conference.
Certification or Licensure Requirements
Mental Health Therapist I: Masters degree in psychology, social work, sociology, or other related field.
Mental Health Therapist II and Mental Health Therapist Supervisor: Masters degree in psychology, social work, sociology, or other related field, and California licensure by the Board of Behavioral Sciences or Board of Psychology.
Fair Labor Standards Act – Exemption Status
All levels within this series are exempt based on the FLSA guidelines for executive, professional or administrative exemption.
Supervisory Titles
Positions allocated to Mental Health Therapist Supervisor must meet the criteria for supervision as defined in the Supplemental Guidelines for Supervisor Classes (SAM 12).
NOTE: Additional qualification requirements are approved for positions by the Human Resources Directors in accordance with the provisions of Personnel Policies for Staff Members 20 and 21.