Mental health careers (A guide)
By
OptimistMinds
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Author bio
The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
In this guide, we will discuss which are the careers focused on mental health.
Mental health careers
Health is essential for the existence of a human being.
A person who has no health has very little in this life since a healthy body is an expression that a person can achieve the things that are proposed.
Surely you know many people who at the time of entering the university to study a career are decided by the area of health.
Many want to be doctors, they want to add value by saving people’s lives.
This is something worth admiring.
Physical health is not the only important thing in humans, but also their mental health.
A person who does not have good mental health can also manifest problems with their physical health.
The mind controls everything. Control your body, your emotions and everything you do daily.
If your mind does not work, how your body will work?
Today, mental health careers have grown in terms of the number of people who want to learn more about mental health.
Some time ago we could appreciate that studying careers in the field of mental health was not something “fashion”.
Awareness and the importance of caring for our mind have led people to decide to know more and contribute to the improvement of people’s mental health.
In the area of mental health, there are a series of focused careers so that the mind can be in its optimal condition.
Each has a fundamental role with the ultimate goal of providing well-being and better quality of life for the person.
The person must know that, apart from psychiatry and psychology, there are careers that have a lot of potentials and contribute to the improvement of mental health.
People mostly want to know how much therapists earn so they can plan their future careers and jobs.
Importance of studying a career in the field of mental health
We have always heard countless media expressing the importance of taking care of our physical health.
We have ever heard how our parents used to tell us about the importance of brushing, taking a shower and eating healthy, all with the last instance of our body being in the best shape. It is the same as with mental health.
Our mind controls almost all the things that our body does.
It has been proven in various investigations how thoughts influence for a person to develop a physical illness or not, how stress can aggravate the ailments and how a person can die from having a mental illness.
Awareness about taking care of our mind has been growing.
Our emotions are a fundamental part of our being and knowing how to manage them contributes to better mental health.
Not only is studying medicine valid for body care but also studying careers in the field of mental health becomes necessary.
People committed to wanting to contribute to humanity have good mental health are needed every day.
Advances in research show a lot and are a sign that the world needs more people prepared in the area of mental health.
Mental illnesses are on the rise, more and more people suffer from anxiety and depression disorders.
WHO estimates that more than 300 million people in the world suffer from depression and the figures show that these numbers may increase.
Suicides increases, homicides also and how society presses us to be the best in a short time, are things that become a time bomb for a person.
More professionals in the area of mental health are needed to educate the population more, to teach them how to control and recognize their emotions and how to learn to deal with difficult situations.
You have to teach people that the solution to a problem is not to take their lives or take it away from someone else, it is to develop skills that allow you to find an answer to events.
The boom is growing when it comes to mental health careers.
More and more people are interested in contributing so that mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical illness.
Every day there are more people focused on seeking a cure for chronic mental illnesses, every day more progress is being made to be a world where talking about mental illness is not embarrassing, but it shows courage and teaches that it is okay to ask for help and it is okay to help.
Which are the careers in the field of mental health?
The mental health area has a series of careers that aim to address mental health care in various ways.
Among the most prominent mental health careers are the following ones:
Psychiatry
One of the first careers found in the list of mental health careers in psychiatry.
Psychiatry is a medical speciality that is characterized by the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatry works with aspects related to the mode, behaviour, cognition and perceptions that a person may have.
The person who is interested in specializing in psychiatry should have a career in the area of medicine since this is a speciality.
Depending on the place, the speciality of psychiatry can last from 3 to 4 years.
For the diagnosis of mental disorders, the psychiatrist relies on manuals such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and also usually use the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
When a psychiatrist indicates treatment for a mental disorder, it can rely on the use of psychological and pharmacological treatment.
Its condition as a doctor allows it to prescribe drugs to treat various disorders.
Psychology
Psychology is another career that belongs to the list of mental health careers.
Psychology is a science that is responsible for the study of behaviour and mind.
Wikipedia expresses that psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought.
It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, and all the variety of phenomena linked to those emergent properties, joining this way the broader neuroscientific group of researchers.
As a social science, it aims to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases.
There are several classifications for a person who wants to study psychology, which can vary according to the name he may have in college.
There are psychologists of the social, behavioural or cognitive scientific type.
There is also psychology focused on the educational or industrial field.
A person who studies psychology is called a psychologist.
The treatments used to treat people with mental difficulties or a particular situation that affects their behaviour are focused on various types of therapy.
Mental health social worker
You may not have heard so much or if you listened, did you ever wonder what a mental health social worker was.
In the list of mental health careers in the mental health social worker which has the function of empowering individuals who have mental illnesses and their families and the entire community where they are to live a full life and in an independent way.
This career comes in contact beyond the mental illness that the person has.
It gets involved in its whole environment to know how its environment can influence its illness and in turn raise awareness of where it is.
Mental health nurse
On the list of mental health careers is a mental health nurse.
In the United Kingdom, a mental health nurse is a psychiatric nurse who specializes in the care of patients who have mental problems.
A mental health nurse takes care of the specific needs of an individual, creating an approach to the patient to build trust, keep track of each patient, administer the medication to each patient and help make the recovery process more effective.
A mental health nurse is very close to the patient, so this person must ensure that the patient is confident and can share their concerns.
Supportive careers in the area of mental health
While it is true that the careers mentioned above involve more close and personal work with a patient who has a mental problem, some people work to help keep things in the mental health area under control.
These careers are administrative and also belong to mental health careers because their support is vital for things to work properly.
Careers as a clinical secretary or counselling administrator are areas that work closely with mental health professionals and are available for administrative aspects to be under control.
A mental health professional who works personally with patients cannot keep track of everything at once, so the importance of supporting experts in the area of administration so that everything can be kept in order.
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FAQs about mental health careers
Should a person be a mental health professional to make a diagnosis of a mental disorder?
Yes, since this person received the necessary knowledge to be able to make that type of diagnosis.
Can a psychologist, like a psychiatrist, medicate?
No, a psychologist cannot medicate, but he must know the medications that a patient is taking.
What are the most common mental illnesses?
Among the most common are depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and dementia.
What is one of the mental illnesses that causes the most difficulty in diagnosing?
One of the most difficult diseases to diagnose is Borderline Personality Disorder.
People who have the disorder are not even aware that they have it. It is one of the commonly misdiagnosed diseases.
What is the name of the mental disorder that originates after a person has experienced a traumatic event?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is one that develops after the person has experienced a situation that can cause a lot of stress and fear.
Conclusion
The variety of mental health careers in the educational field indicates the importance of considering this type of profession when choosing a professional career.
The study of physical health is important, but also mental health.
Every day many people from different fields work to promote mental health and the importance of attending a medical professional when a person feels the symptoms of a mental illness such as depression or anxiety.
Many professionals in the field of mental health strive to contribute so that people enjoy overall health.
If you are thinking of studying one of the mental health careers in the area or are studying it, you have made a good decision.
Not for the simple fact of being a career belonging to this area but that your studies may be the future to find a solution to many mental disorders that are currently being studied.
Recommended links
- Working in Mental Health
- Careers in Mental Health: Opportunities in Psychology, Counseling, and Social Work
- Good Practice in Adult Mental Health (Good Practice in Health, Social Care and Criminal Justice)
References
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