What to study to work in mental health?

[purpledaze24]

I’m 39 and have been wanting to work in mental health for a long time. I currently have a completely unrelated career in a well-paid but very boring sector. I’d really like to retrain and work in some area of mental heath ideally with adolescents and young adults but interested in working with adults too. I’ve researched social work (too stressful, not family-friendly hours as I’m a single mum to young children), I don’t want to be a mental health nurse or a therapist (but I’m happy for therapy to be part of the job). I’m quite interested in occupational therapy but I’m unsure in what ways an OT works with people with mental health problems. I want to train for something vocational that I will be qualified to do straight after training. Does anyone have any ideas? I’m also interested in any other unrelated suggestions that might suit later life career changers! (Not teaching though) thank you :)

OTs work with mental health patients participate in daily activities by setting goals with their client. These goals can be functional (ex. Self-care skills), social, cognitive (ex. problem solving), employment/education…
I’m sure I’m missing something out there, I had one and she basically had nothing to add to what my therapist is making me do already, such as creating and following a daily routine, how to remember when to take meds and which meds to take, finding a way to get back to work, mindfulness, breathing exercises, coping strategies…

Thanks for your reply. So you didn’t find her very useful? Or was it more that maybe she wasn’t that great at her job?

I personally didn’t find her useful but I don’t really fit the criteria for needing OT as I am a very active and routine based person. And my therapist and psychiatrist work on those things a lot better than she did. I should add that they do it better because they know me and have resources that she simply didn’t have.

But if you want to go down the OT route you should. I work as a teacher and have worked with plenty of very useful OTs so I am sure someone with MH struggles can really gain from having an OT, it just wasn’t a fit for me and I mostly added that so you’d know that my list isn’t perfect.

I found out that the government offer free courses online for mental health and I did two of those! I completed one on Mental Health Awareness and basically, it discussed every different type of category. I found that one really helpful and I am pretty sure they have more! It was free as long as you meet the criteria.

Thanks for this. Did the course you did lead to employment within mental health?

Yes, they are actually accredited and signed off by the government so you get a certificate too! I believe they do level 2 and 3. I did a Management free course and got a job in management from it! I think they do it to help people get into work (or I am assuming anyway) Do you want me to tag the link? I have still got the emails somewhere in my inbox lol

I’m a mental health nurse but obviously you’ve ruled that out. However I work alongside OTs a lot and they play a vital role.

in inpatient settings they run groups and activities to stretch interests and relieve stress and boredom. They also run individual sessions to assess clients practical skills eg cooking, shopping etc. They also do home visits to see what clients can do, and if they need adaptions or a care package to manage independently. They also can assess and suggest ways for clients to be more independent eg getting them involved with online banking/shopping or accessing community facilities. With older clients they may help with recommending adaptations to the home eg rails, wet rooms and often get involved with housing providers (if appropriate eg councils/HAs)

I think it seems an interesting role and if I wasn’t a nurse I’d be interested in doing it. I’m only part time now and retiring next year so that ship has sailed!

There are mental health support workers
Not great pay but I doubt you need much in the way of specific qualifications. Mental health issues are extremely challenging and you seem to have a lot of limits on what you want to do. Is it really for you? It's an uphill grind.

Have you thought about taking some
free online courses around mental health, to help you with qualifications in the subject and to give you more of an insight on what you would like to do?