Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 016 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES › Division 06 - Medical Services › Rule 016.06.05-040 - Rehabilitative Services for Persons with Mental Illness (RSPMI) Update #59

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
Section II
			 Rehabilitative Services for Persons with Mental Illness
213.000
Staff Requirements
Each RSPMI provider shall ensure that mental health
				professionals are available to provide appropriate and adequate supervision of
				all clinical activities. RSPMI staff members must provide services only within
				the scope of their individual licensure. It is the responsibility of the
				facility to credential each clinical staff member, specifying the areas in
				which he or she can practice based on training, experience and demonstrated
				competence.
Minimal staff requirements for RSPMI provider participation in
				the Arkansas Medicaid Program are:
A.
			 A Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with professional qualifications and experience
			 as established by the provider's governing body.
B. Appropriate mental health professionals
			 who shall meet all professional requirements as defined in the state licensing
			 and certification laws relating to their respective professions. Mental health
			 professionals include the following:
1.
			 Psychiatrist,
2.
			 Physician,
3.
			 Psychologist,
4. Psychological
			 Examiner,
5. Adult Psychiatric
			 Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist,
6. Child Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical
			 Nurse Specialist,
7. Adult
			 Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Nurse Practitioner,
8. Family Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced
			 Nurse Practitioner,
9. Master of
			 Social Work (Licensed in the State of Arkansas),
10. Registered nurse (RN; licensed in the
			 State of Arkansas) who has one (1) year supervised experience in a mental
			 health setting (Services provided by the RN must be within the scope of
			 practice specified by the RN's licensure.),
11. Licensed professional counselor (Licensed
			 in the State of Arkansas) and
12.
			 Persons in a related profession who are licensed in the State of Arkansas and
			 practicing within the bounds of their licensing authority, with a master's
			 degree and appropriate experience in a mental health setting, including
			 documented, supervised training and experience in diagnosis and therapy of a
			 broad range of mental disorders.
C. The services of a medical records
			 librarian are required. The medical records librarian (or person performing the
			 duties of the medical records librarian) shall be responsible for ongoing
			 quality controls, for continuity of patient care and patient traffic flow. The
			 librarian shall assure that records are maintained, completed and preserved;
			 that required indexes and registries are maintained and that statistical
			 reports are prepared. This staff member will be personally responsible for
			 ensuring that information on enrolled patients is immediately retrievable,
			 establishing a central records index, and maintaining service records in such a
			 manner as to enable a constant monitoring of continuity of care.
D. A mental health paraprofessional is
			 defined as a person with a Bachelor's Degree or a license from the Arkansas
			 State Board of Nursing who does not meet the definition of mental health
			 professional, but who is licensed and certified by the State of Arkansas in a
			 related profession and is practicing within the bounds as permitted by his or
			 her licensing authority, or a person employed by a certified RSPMI provider
			 with a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma (GED) and documented
			 training in the area of mental health. A mental health paraprofessional may
			 provide certain Rehabilitative Services for Persons with Mental Illness under
			 supervision of a mental health professional. The services paraprofessionals may
			 provide are: crisis stabilization intervention, on-site intervention, off-site
			 intervention, rehabilitative day service, therapeutic day/acute day treatment
			 and collateral service. If the paraprofessional is a licensed nurse, the
			 approved services may also be provided: medication administration by a licensed
			 nurse, routine venipuncture for collection of specimen and catheterization for
			 collection of specimen.
213.100
Mental Health Paraprofessional Training
The RSPMI provider is responsible for ensuring all mental
				health paraprofessionals successfully complete training in mental health
				service provision from a licensed medical person experienced in the area of
				mental health, a certified RSPMI Medicaid provider, or a facility licensed by
				the State Board of Education before providing care to Medicaid
				recipients.
A. The mental health
			 paraprofessional must receive orientation to the RSPMI provider
			 agency.
B. The mental health
			 paraprofessional training course must total a minimum of forty (40) classroom
			 hours and must be successfully completed within a maximum time of the first two
			 (2) months of employment by the RSPMI provider agency.
C. The training curriculum must contain
			 information specific to the population being served, i.e. child and adolescent,
			 adult, dually diagnosed, etc. The curriculum must include, but is not limited
			 to:
1. Communication skills.
2. Knowledge of mental illnesses.
3. How to be an appropriate role
			 model.
4. Behavior
			 management.
5. Handling
			 emergencies.
6. Record keeping:
			 observing recipient, reporting or recording observations, time, or employment
			 records.
7. Knowledge of clinical
			 limitations.
8. Knowledge of
			 appropriate relationships with recipient.
9. Group interaction.
10. Identification of real issues.
11. Listening techniques.
12. Confidentiality.
13. Knowledge of medications and side
			 effects.
14. Daily living
			 skills.
15. Hospitalization
			 procedures single-point-of-entry.
16. Knowledge of the Supplemental Security
			 Income (SSI) application process.
17. Knowledge of day treatment models proper
			 placement levels.
18. Awareness of
			 options.
19. Cultural
			 competency.
20. Ethical issues in
			 practice.
21. Childhood
			 development, if serving the child and adolescent population.
D. A written examination of the
			 mental health paraprofessional's knowledge of the 40-hour classroom training
			 curriculum must be successfully completed.
E. Evaluation of the mental health
			 paraprofessional's ability to perform daily living skills (DLS) for mental
			 health services must be successfully completed by means of a skills
			 test.
F. The paraprofessional who
			 successfully completes the training must be awarded a certificate. This
			 certificate must state the person is qualified to work in an agency under
			 professional supervision as a mental health paraprofessional.
G. In-service training sessions are required
			 at a minimum of once per 12-month period after the successful completion of the
			 initial 40-hour classroom training. The in-service training must total a
			 minimum of eight (8) hours each 12-month period beginning with the date of
			 certification as a paraprofessional and each 12-month period thereafter. The
			 in-service training may be conducted, in part, in the field. Documentation of
			 in-service hours will be maintained in the employee's personnel record and will
			 be available for inspection by regulatory agencies.
A mental health paraprofessional who can provide documentation
				of training or experience in mental health service delivery may be exempt from
				the 40-hour classroom training. This does not exclude the paraprofessional from
				the requirement of successfully completing an examination and skills
				test.
All mental health paraprofessionals who provided mental health
				services for a Medicaid certified RSPMI provider on or before October 1, 1989,
				and since November 1, 1988, will be certified as mental health
				paraprofessionals. These mental health paraprofessionals may be exempt from the
				40-hour classroom training. However, a written examination of the mental health
				paraprofessional's knowledge of the 40-hour training course must be
				successfully completed and an evaluation of his or her ability to perform the
				daily living skills must be successfully completed by means of a skills test. A
				certificate must be awarded to the mental health paraprofessional and available
				for review by the Division of Medical Services staff upon request.