Even though true awareness and understanding surrounding the issue of mental health and emotional wellbeing are finally broadening, it is still somewhat of a difficult subject for many people to truly comprehend.
This refusal to accept that some illnesses are entirely invisible to the naked eye is both a blessing and a proverbial curse for the individual. On the one hand, this lack of empathy and compassion could be construed as airing on the ignorant side, yet on the other, at least that person never has to experience the horror and anguish of suffering from a mental illness.
If you are someone who has chosen to dedicate their professional working life to helping people recover and overcome mental illness and are passionate about breaking any remaining taboos surrounding such topics, then such a career is ideal. With this in mind, continue reading for a detailed guide to a career in the mental health profession.
Contents
The Top Reasons to Work in Mental Health
As with any profession, in particular, one that is far more than a mere job and much more of a vocation, there are certainly excessive pressures and potentially stressful situations that you will encounter.
Conversely, however, and this is where a career in mental health is so unbelievably rewarding, there is a myriad of benefits, including, but in no way limited to, the following:
- Pride in your work each and every day
- Flexible scheduling and shift variations
- New challenges to face all the time
- A diverse array of colleagues and patients
- High levels of job satisfaction
- Recognition in professional circles
- Highly likely career progression
- Competitive salary rates
- Knowing you are making a real difference in people’s lives
Education & Experience
There are several different career pathways into the mental health profession, from working as a mental health nurse to a more community-based social worker. Regardless of the specific area that you would like to enter into, there are certain mandatory educational requirements and logical steps to take.
Firstly, it is essential to successfully acquire a bachelor’s degree in nursing and then pass the NCLEX-RN examination. For the vast majority of mental health nurses, although it is important to remember that this is not entirely necessary, the next logical step is to obtain a master’s associate degree in nursing too, which naturally specializes in mental health.
If you are sure you want to progress your career from strength to strength, then you should enroll in a prestigious online post master’s PMHNP to provide you with extensive background knowledge and on-the-job experience. Studying a post-master’s PMHNP (Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner) program will further not only your own knowledge base in the discipline but might also provide you opportunities to move into teaching and mentoring trainee and new PMHNPs as well.
Mental Health Counsellors
Essentially, a mental health counselor is responsible for directly helping both communities and individuals to address their mental health concerns and deal with emotional issues. As a mental health counselor, you would be tasked with diagnosing emotional, behavioral, and mental conditions and disorders and then administering and providing the right level and type of treatment and support.
There are six main specialisms within the career pathway of mental health counseling, which include LPCs (Licensed Professional Counselors), Behavioral Disorder Counselors, LMHCs (Licensed Mental Health Counselors), Addiction and Substance Abuse Counselors, Licensed Clinical Counselors and LCMHCs (Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors.
Although, naturally, each separate specialism has its own unique roles and responsibilities, the majority of duties of a mental health counselor in any specialism are similar and include the following:
- Working with families, couples, parents, and individual people
- Using a combination of mind and body techniques and treatments to tackle mental health issues
- Looking into dependencies such as anger management, LGBTQ concerns and issues, suicidal thoughts, stress and anxiety, MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), aging, substance and alcohol abuse, and bullying.
- Developing tailormade processes of a therapeutic nature
- The referral of individuals to other sections of the mental health care system
- Talking therapy to help individuals discuss experiences and emotions
Clinical Psychologists
Perhaps the most prominent and recognizable role within the mental health sector is that of the clinical psychologist.
Clinical psychology is an absolutely fascinating and multi-faceted professional field to enter, and clinical psychologists can work in a wide variety of professional settings, including hospitals, private practices, and specific mental health clinics. Interestingly, although clinical psychology is a complicated area of study, such professionals are not actually physicians and, therefore, in many cases, are unable to prescribe actual medications.
Usually, clinical psychologists work with individual clients, whether they have been assigned to a certain person or else have been approached privately by them, and essentially their role centers around the professional assessment of their patients’ behavior.
Not only do clinical psychologists work to improve the life and overall outlook of the clients themselves, but they also often speak to and support the parents, legal guardians, carers, and close family members of the client as well. Clinical psychology is always geared towards not only bettering the lives of the client themselves but also how they impact and affect those closest to them too.
There is, unsurprisingly, a myriad of skills for clinical psychologists that are not so much of an optional benefit but are, moreover, an unofficial prerequisite for a long career in the field. Firstly, a high level of academic and professional experience and knowledge of psychological practices and theories are required, not only for those in the United States but also across the world, which will be an enormous advantage.
You should also naturally be drawn to the analysis of people’s behavior and their automatic thought processes and be able to combine your instincts, knowledge, and research skills together to come to the best conclusion and treatment plan for each and every client. In addition, strong communication and ‘people skills’, the ability to be part of a team and to work on your own, a proverbial ‘thick’ skin, and the ability to empathize with people from all walks of life are also important.
Mental Health Nurses
One role within the field of mental health and one which is certainly, at the very least, somewhat undervalued by the public and even other professionals in the healthcare system is that of the mental health nurse.
Mental health is now, although far too late, finally becoming recognized as a legitimate medical field and in the media, not to mention in casual conversations amongst friends, mental health issues are being taken seriously and slowly becoming visible as a legitimate illness.
Mental health nurses not only work with people who are suffering from more ‘accepted’ and understood mental health problems, such as MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) and anxiety, but also come into contact with more complicated and perhaps ‘taboo’ disorders, such as schizophrenia and disassociative identity disorder (DID).
The daily roles and responsibilities of a mental health nurse include, amongst a host of others, the provision of treatment to individual patients and the assurance that medications are both properly administered and taken, and conducting one-to-one therapeutic sessions. Mental health nurses are also charged with making sure that every legal requirement is fully adhered to, that they build working relationships with the close family members of the patient, and ensuring the maintenance of individual patient records.
Within the field of mental health nursing, nurses usually work in one of two areas, although most switch from one to the other more than once throughout their careers. The first sector, within a more traditional hospital setting, mental health nurses work in specialist units, such as with people who are living with an eating disorder, an outpatient department, a psychiatric ward, or an intensive care unit in psychiatrics.
The other section of the health care system in which mental health nurses predominantly operate is that of the community, with community mental health nurses working in a wide range of different locations, including residential centers, jails, medical doctors’ surgeries, community healthcare centers, and within patients’ homes.
For the vast majority of mental health nurses, especially in the first few years of qualifying, you will be working unsociable shift patterns and will be providing entirely round-the-clock care. Mental health nurses who have been working in the profession for many years often report that forming close professional bonds and connections with their colleagues and seniors who work most closely with them is vital.
Even if you are lucky enough to be surrounded by friends and family members who always support you every single step of the way, your real support system will come from those professionals who are working with you and around you.
Psychiatrist
Here, it is vital that you are fully aware of the difference between psychologists and psychiatrists, one of the more prominent being that, as previously discussed, the latter are usually unable to prescribe medical treatments and medications.
Conversely, if you are interested in becoming a psychiatrist, you will mostly be educated in talking therapies with patients to treat various mental health conditions. Furthermore, psychiatrists are not always required to gain a master’s degree or Ph.D. in mental health discipline and moreover, can actively pursue a career with a bachelor’s degree with a mental health specialism.
Just a few of the more prominent mental health conditions of individual clients assigned to a psychiatrist include:
- Postpartum Depression
- Gambling Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Mood Disorders
- Panic Attacks
- Schizophrenia
- PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Bipolar Disorder
- Major Depressive Disorder
- OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
- Anxiety
- Eating Disorders
- Body Dysmorphic Disorder
As with all other career pathways within mental health, even if you spend your entire time training, getting as much work experience as you possibly can, and steeping yourself in academic reading on the discipline, the most valuable learning resource will be your patients themselves.
During your first session with a patient, either as part of your work experience during your educational degree or else when you become registered and qualified, ensure that you work towards building an alliance with the client first before imparting your advice and treatment wisdom.
Mental Health & You
The final area which is exceedingly important to discuss and indeed properly consider when focused on a career in the mental health profession, regardless of the specific discipline you wish to focus on, is regarding your own levels of mental health and wellbeing.
Even though sometimes, it will be nigh-on impossible to separate your working day and individual conversations you may have had at work as a medical health professional from your personal downtime and private life, you must endeavor to do so as much as feasibly possible.
Before each and every shift, it is crucial to properly prepare yourself, even if such preparation techniques include meditative breathing and mindfulness work in the car on the way to work. It is indisputable that exercise, even short bursts of movement, releases endorphins which can both improve the quality and duration of your sleep as well as serve to boost your mood and positive feelings.
When, rather than if, you experience a traumatic session or else have a particularly overtly stressful day at work, instead of bottling everything up and keeping how you feel to yourself, you should instead maintain open lines of communication with your family and close friends. Just as talking therapy is the basis of psychiatry, you should remember how important communication is and endeavor to share what you are feeling and experiencing with the trusted people around you.
Pursuing a career in the mental health sector will be as extremely rewarding and intensive as it will also be, at times, exceedingly stressful. As such, this decision should never be undertaken lightly.
However, with the proper training and experience, with a professional mentor at work and several personal bonds and connections with those in your private life, a career in mental health will mean that every single day of your life, you will be selflessly changing so many people’s lives for the better.
