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Mental Health Professional Career
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Mental Health Professional Job Description
Mental Health Professionals are people who work with individuals suffering from mental illnesses and problems and help them in dealing with their problems. A Mental Health Professional may be a psychiatrist, social worker, mental health nurse, a licensed counselor or a psychologist.
A Mental Health Professional works closely with the patient, the patient’s family or friends and helps them manage their problems. He must have adequate training and experience in the domain of mental health. Interacting with patients, designing their treatment plans, supporting behavioral changes, boosting their levels of confidence, etc are some of the activities to be undertaken by a Mental Health Professional
Mental Health Professional Skills/Duties
The skills and duties of Mental Health Professionals depend upon their qualification and profession.
A Psychiatrist is a medical doctor who diagnoses, treats and manages patients of mental problems by psychotherapy or using medications. A Psychologist on the other hand, conducts various mental tests on the patients, evaluates their conditions and provides treatment in the form of psychotherapy. A psychiatrist is not a medical doctor and hence is not allowed to prescribe medications. In addition a Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker, counselor, etc do most of the support functions which include interacting with the patient, maintaining their records, reviewing their progress and providing guidance and counseling support.
With regards to the general characteristics, all mental health professionals need to have basic attributes like patience, ability to listen carefully, soothing and comforting attitude and overall ability to boost up the morale and confidence of the mentally ill patients, to help them recovery and lead a normal and productive life.
Mental Health Professional Education and Training
• The educational qualifications would depend upon the specific profession of the Mental Health Professional.
• The Psychiatrist is a medical doctor, trained in the domain of psychiatry while a Psychologist is an individual trained in conducting mental tests and psychotherapy.
• A Mental Health Nurse is a nurse with training providing support to patients with mental health problems.
• Each of these Mental Health Professionals need to have a basic qualification and license to practice, which is governed by the respective accreditation bodies in the United States.
Mental Health Professional Job Outlook
Mental Health Professionals work with specific population and hence their contribution is significant. They work towards preventing suicides, family problems, anxiety, self-harming, drug addiction and other serious problems which might result in mental illness.
In addition, a mental health professional needs to work with the families and friends of the mentally ill to ensure that they are loved and taken care of. Some mental health professionals work with special groups including kids, teenagers or the elderly. Alternatively, some mental health professionals work in specialized areas like drug abuse, childhood abuse, etc.
Mental Health Professional Salary
The average annual salary of a mental health professional is about $67,000.
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