BHA Continuing Education Continuing Education Overview
What is the purpose of continuing education?
As helping professionals, it is important to provide the best possible care, improve patient outcomes, and protect patient safety. The purpose of continuing education (CE) is to ensure professionals keep their knowledge and skills up to date with current best practices. Completion and documentation of CEs enables certified professionals (e.g., BHAs) to maintain compliance with their certification requirements.
What are the BHA requirements for continuing education?
Forty (40) hours of training during the two-year period of certification
- Four (4) hours of Ethics and Consent
- Four (4) hours of Confidentiality and Privacy
- Four (4) hours of Cross-Cultural Communication and Working with Diverse Populations
- The remaining 28 hours can be any course related to the BHA Knowledge and Skills
CEs may be completed online or in-person
- At least twenty (20) hours must be taken with a live instructor and documented as face-to-face instruction
- Courses that are less than one-hour in length are not accepted
How do I document continuing education?
Keep a copy of all Certificates of Completion in your records as proof if an audit is requested by the CHAP Certification Board
Your Certificate of Completion should have your name, course title, number of course hours, date of completion, and approved sponsor name (i.e. NAADAC)
Where do I find continuing education?
- Annual Integrated Health Aide Forum – 2024 Draft Forum Agenda
- ANTHC BHA Training Center – annual course calendar (scroll to the bottom for list of CEs)
- In-person conferences – There are many in-person conferences focused on behavioral health topics both in and out of state. You can find conference CE sponsorship by searching the conference website.
- Online – There are many online company’s dedicated to providing continuing education for a fee such as CE4Less and Quantum Units Ed. It is your responsibility to make sure the sponsor is one of the CHAP CB approved sponsors.
- Learning Management System (LMS) – Many healthcare employers purchase Learning Management Systems that provide a free catalog of courses that are readily available to their employees to help them meet their CE requirements. Examples of LMS’s are Relias, Healthstream and CareAcademy. Each course in the catalog has a different sponsor. It is your responsibility to make sure the sponsor is one of the CHAP CB approved sponsors.
What is an approved sponsor for continuing education?
An approved sponsor is an organization or entity with expertise in the behavioral health field. They review continuing education courses to ensure that the course content is accurate and conforms to behavioral health best practices. They show that the course meets these requirements by putting their “stamp of approval” on the course. The approved sponsor should be clearly identified on the Certificate of Completion. The CHAP Certification Board has a list of approved sponsors such as the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC).