In America, about 50 million adults suffer from a mental illness. However, more than half of those adults have never received any kind of treatment for their mental illness.
Fortunately, more and more Americans are venturing into mental health careers, which helps offer more resources. If that’s something you’ve considered, it’s important to know about the mental health fields to choose from.
The following guide will explore 5 careers in mental health that make excellent jobs and help those around you. Read on and learn about these fields in mental health to find the perfect match for your skills.
1. Become a Therapist or Counselor
Therapists and counselors evaluate the mental health of clients and provide therapy one-on-one or in a group environment. To enter this profession, you must first obtain a master’s degree.
Both therapists and counselors use several titles to identify their specific training and licenses. A mental health counselor has worked in a clinal setting for many years. An LPC has a degree in psychology, counseling, or a field similar to those.
Those with training and knowledge of alcohol and drug use can become certified alcohol and drug abuse counselors. Registered nurses with in-depth training in the mental health and psychiatric field can become nurse psychotherapists.
If you wish to help married couples and families, you can become a licensed marital and family therapist. Different states have different rules for becoming a licensed therapist or a counselor. So, titles tend to change for therapists depending on their location.
It’s also important to note that counselors and therapists aren’t allowed to prescribe medicine. Although, they can help connect clients with different providers you can get them the necessary medications.
2. Become a Psychologist
A psychologist can assess a client’s mental health through interviews and tests. to establish a diagnosis. Like therapists, psychologists work one-on-one with clients or in a group atmosphere.
They must have a Psy.D or Ph.D. and a license in their practicing state. Some psychologists can prescribe medicines, but it depends on the state they’re in.
Psychologists that can prescribe medications need to have extra training. For example, technical training in psychopharmacology, which involves using medicines to treat mental illnesses.
Becoming a psychologist means you’ll make a great salary and get to work in a variety of settings. You can even become your own boss and work from home if you’re looking for flexibility.
3. Become a Clinical Social Worker
Many social workers tend to have a master’s degree (MSW) or a clinical social worker license. Typically, they work as part of an interdisciplinary team along with other education and health professionals.
Clinical social workers often help clients discover and enhance their inherent strengths. Through this process, the client’s overall well-being gets vastly improved. Note that a clinical social worker cannot prescribe any medications.
It’s a growing field with flexible hours and most clinical social workers do something different each day. It’s a very exciting mental health field and it’s a great way to make an impact on your community.
4. Become a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
A mental health nurse practitioner has advanced licensing and education at the graduate level. Sometimes professionals in this field go by the lengthy title of psychiatric-mental health advanced practice nurses.
Before they start working, they must obtain a master’s degree in nursing or a doctoral degree in advanced practice psychiatric nursing. They also need a board certification, which they have to renew once every 5 years.
Mental health nurse practitioner gets specific training to help them diagnose and treat mental illnesses. Unlike other fields on the list, these mental health professionals can prescribe several therapies and medicines anywhere in America.
If you want a routine schedule with a competitive salary, you should definitely consider this field. It’s a high-demand position and often leads to other career paths. The field is rewarding and challenging and offers excellent job security.
5. Become a Peer Support Specialist
Peer specialists also go by peer mentors or peer support workers. They use their past experience of substance abuse or mental health recovery to help clients.
They also receive formal training to help them facilitate mind-body recovery and resiliency for clients they work with. Most often, peer support specialists work to advocate for clients currently in recovery.
Like other fields on this list, a peer specialist might need special certifications and training in different states. Most of these training practices and certifications come via state-run programs or third-party providers.
Training usually requires a certain amount of hands-on training and a certain amount of volunteer hours. While peer support specialists can offer clients many resources, they can’t prescribe medications.
Because people in this field get to share their own stories with clients, it also helps their own mental health. They get to be creative while acting as a recovery role model. Also, peers come to them by choice, which makes a huge difference in terms of recovery.
There are options to do peer support work remotely via the phone or online. Just make sure that you want to enter the world of recovery coaching and set goals for others.
Finding Careers in Mental Health
After reviewing our guide’s 5 careers in mental health, which ones stand out to you? Remember the requirements and benefits of each mental health field and think about which one sounds the most rewarding.
You can browse the rest of our website for more career ideas and tips to help you find a job you’ll love.
