If you work in mental health services/talking therapies etc....

[NeverHomeAlone]

What is your job? Can you tell me more about it? What qualifications did you do to get you to where you are today? What is your working day/week like? What are your working conditions like? How do you feel about your job?

Interested as I'm thinking about retraining. I would love to do something I felt made a difference. I have no relevant qualifications. I have experience as a foster carer and have had big griefs in my life, and grown up around adults who have had poor mental health and addictions.

I’m retraining via local college to do counselling, evenings only. Check out the courses available near you. It’s a 3 year journey to become qualified for me, then going to undertake further courses on cbt and other areas of focus.

Check out what you’d need qualification wise in the sector you want to get into. Mental health is a huge industry, and there are lots of routes to go down, such as grief counselling, addiction, family liaison support etc.

The job roles vary depending on whether you work private practice, for an agency or for the NHS, but I’m moving into an area where I will only do 1 day a week to begin with and keep my ‘day job’ for a while.

Roles include a fair amount of admin in between therapy sessions, and you would have clinical supervision too. Beyond that, check out some of the jobs online to see what the expectations are.

Good luck!

I’m an OT working in a community mental health team. I work with adults to support their recovery goals and help remove barriers that may stop that happening. I can refer in to specialist species such as psychology when needed. It is very intense, especially when someone goes in to crisis, but I have an excellent and supportive manager snd team which really helps.

I went to uni to train full time but I would really recommend keeping your eye out for apprenticeship health professional roles. In my mental health trust you start as a bend 4, do 2 days a week in your base team, 2 days a week at uni and then over 4 years you complete your degree snd go on placements in other areas. My trust does OT, Mental health nursing snd LD nursing as apprenticeships. You get paid, have no uni fees and are more or less guaranteed a job at the end of it! Win win I think!

You may be able to apply for the apprenticeships as they or advertised, but many are internally recruited so you could look to get a band 3 HCA tole, maybe on the wards or in the community if you can’t do shifts - then apply internally.

Happy to answer any questions you may have

It’s a large sector but ultimately you need to decide if you want to be accredited as a mental health professional or not. Professional options include off the top of my head

• mental health nursing
• occupational therapy
• social worker
• psychologist
• counsellor/psychotherapist but be careful there as those titles are not protected and there’s a lot of unregulated practitioners.

There are other fields too now such as the educational mental health practitioner, and psychological well-being practitioner but these are generally postgrad training routes for health professionals.

All of the above require university courses and extensive training.

You can go in at entry level as a support worker and you could potentially work your way up to home manager / supported living manager with on the job training options.

I work as an employment specialist for a mental health charity and we are integrated into community mental health teams to provide employment support to service users in secondary care. We are paid at NHS equivalent band 5, and I have a degree in health and social care.

Good luck.

Support worker for NHS is likely the fastest and most economical route.
You can progress through apprenticeships at work training as nurse apprentice / nurse / AP / OT / Physio / Dietitian etc. Apprenticeships can take 18- 4 years

Loool auto correct
18 months to 4 years

Good luck

It's internally rewarding
You're virtually guaranteed a job
People do appreciate you
Like anything in life it has ups and downs but overall it can be a great career because of the opportunities and flexibility once you qualify

LeoTimmyandVi are you based in Northern Ireland? Just the mention of "trusts" makes me think you are (as am i).

Im a community mental health nurse.

I'm old and qualified in 1993. At that time nurse education was changing from an apprentice model to a diploma (now degree). When I trained the diploma was being rolled out and you could do either the traditional model or one of the pilot diplomas . I went for the traditional model for lots of reasons. I was employed in and by an old asylum, and apart from a small number of placements was basically one of the numbers, 6 weeks in the school of nursing and that was it, i was on the wards! Loved loved love my training. Back then you needed 5 Olevels/GCSEs or what was known as the Dc test, which was basically an IQ test. I moved round different departments/wards e.g. assessment wards, rehab, elderly, therapies, community.

I've worked in prisons, secure units and CMHTs since qualifyi my. Currently my role involves assessing new referrals to services and signposting them into appropriate services, e.g. CBT, psychotherapy etc.

I great frustrated with the job as there is so many cuts and so little resources. When j trained and qualified as well as more beds, there was day hospitals etc. As the asylums shut money was poured into supported housing, CMHTs, drop in services, day centres, but over the years this has shrunk. Together with the selling off of council homes meaning a lack of stable and affordable tenancies and working in mental health is very grim. There are many people with for instance schizophrenia who are vulnerable but rarely come to the attention of anyone who are closed to services and then for some reason come to our attention e.g. from police or housing providers because of concerns of exploitation etc and when you go to seem them there living in squalor. 30 years ago they'd have a nurse or SW keeping am eye on them, now there's nothing. I'm just glad I'm nearly retired . I'm fed up with shouting about it, People don t want to know.

Thanks for all of the responses. A lot to go off and look further into.

I have reasonably young kids, so something that I could either learn from home or that has a fair degree of flexibility with is appealing.

Sorry for tpos. Currently off sick as i have broken my right arm and am typing with non dominant hand.

Oh i work office hours. Im part time 4 days a week, 30 hours. Its hard to find part time unless youre bank. The best way is to start a full time role then negotiate a part time role.

spidey66 it is such a sad state of affairs. I had a family member suffer a mental breakdown and we were shocked at the lack of available help.

moonshine would I be best looking for opportunities as a mental health support worker, or would any support worker open the door to a mental health career?

Thanks again to everyone. You have all been very helpful.

My advice would be to get either a paid care role or some work experience where you would see other professionals in action if you can as you don't know what you personally enjoy until you've seen it/tried a bit of it. And you don't want to do eg a degree and then find you wish you'd been an OT rather than a counsellor or vice versa

@NeverHomeAlone

LeoTimmyandVi are you based in Northern Ireland? Just the mention of "trusts" makes me think you are (as am i).

I am South West England

Good luck with investigating all the many options!

Yes just apply for community mental health support worker roles - same progression opportunities