MHBA-01 — CTSS & the Mental Health Behavioral Aide Role

CTSS & the Mental Health Behavioral Aide Role is the foundation module of CareCertify's Children's Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS) behavioral-aide series. It explains what CTSS is — rehabilitative children's mental health services delivered where children live and grow, at home, school, child care, and in the community — and what a mental health behavioral aide (MHBA) does within it. The central rule is made plain: an MHBA helps a child practice psychosocial skills that a qualified professional has already taught and that are written in the child's individual treatment plan, working under treatment supervision. The course covers the MHBA's scope and boundaries; how to work from the individual treatment plan; treatment supervision and the team; the Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications; the training timeline (30 hours before direct contact including parent team training, additional training within 90 days, and 30 hours every two years); documentation basics; professional boundaries with families; and client rights, confidentiality, and mandated reporting. This module is built to Minn. Stat. 245I.04 (provider qualifications and scope) and 245I.05 (required training). It is one hour of the 30-hour pre-service MHBA training. NOTE: the parent team training component required for MHBAs must use a curriculum approved by the commissioner — see MHBA-08 and your program's DHS-approved parent-teaming curriculum.

Learning Objectives

• Describe what CTSS is and which children it serves
• Explain what a mental health behavioral aide does and does not do
• State the rule that an MHBA practices skills a qualified professional first taught
• Work within an individual treatment plan and under treatment supervision
• Identify MHBA Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications and the training timeline
• Apply professional boundaries, documentation, rights, and reporting basics