Lessons Learnt in Administrative Supervision

Lessons Learnt in Administrative Supervision

Many behavioral health employees have undergone some of the best, bad, and ugly experiences as supervisors as well as supervisees. According to Simons (2017), most of the behavioral health workers have untold stories on these kinds of experience. While as there is an increased demand for skilled behavioral health employees, there is a need to assess some of the lessons learned in administrative supervision.

As a licensed behavioral health worker in the California Private Hospital, I must admit that I have experienced some good and ugly stories for the last twenty-five years. One lesson learned was that some of the administrative supervisors were not adequately equipped with the necessary training to manage supervisees in the work setting. This inadequacy often suggests that the supervisors are not fully qualified in their profession. Furthermore, I also learned that new administrative supervisors flourish when they find well-established policies and procedures (Shepherd, 2019). To maximize the best behavioral health practice, fresh graduates in this profession should be given roles that fit in with distinct career frameworks. Despite the administrative supervision role being to evaluate and monitor the work of staff, not many can speak of meaningful relationships developed in the course of doing work. Great behavioral health employees peacefully co-exist with their supervisors and create impactful relationships.  Lastly, an ugly lesson learn was behavioral health staff turnover. According to Shepherd (2019), this process terminates therapeutic continuity and progress, thus wasting the organization’s resources and employee morale. I believe company resources should be used efficiently on the supervisor’s training rather than carrying out staff turnovers..

However, there should be several ways to improve administrative supervision. The first thing that all organizations should consider is progressing on the supervisor’s education and training before being deployed in the field. Simons (2017) states that this will ensure that supervisors are adequately prepared to handle any scenario in the field. In conclusion, the quality of supervision should be enhanced as well as improvement in the frequency of these administrative practices. Not only will this help behavioral health employees acquire quality care but also assist them in growing professionally.

References

Shepherd, M. (2019). Low-intensity workers: Lessons learned from supervising behavioral health workers and dilemmas associated with such roles.

Simons, J. (2017). Behavioral Health Workers: Clinical and administrative supervision. 1^st edition. 43-46.