Can I do my psychology with a criminal record?

[Ladieunlucky]

I have a criminal record that will be 3 years spent by the time I finish my masters in psychology. The conviction is fraud under false representation. Please don’t judge (or read my previous post for further info). I want to know if I’ll be able to get a job after this as I’ll need to to declare as it show on dbs. If I can do my masters degree and if a uni will accept that and if ill be able to register as a psychiatrist? I’m currently about to start a open uni course

thank you x

I have MH issues myself but this thread is ridiculous.

Here you go OP. This is how you become a psychiatrist.

You need to do a medical degree then not a psychology one

Bearing in mind all you have said, you need to apply to medical school, become a medical doctor and then specialise in psychiatry. It’s a long road (I have two relatives who are psychiatrists) but your conviction will have been spent many years previously by that point. However your conviction may make it difficult to get into medical school s you’ll need to declare it anyway at this point and also later as you’ll be working with vulnerable people. Have you applied to medical school yet?

I thought a psychiatrist had a degree in medicine and then trained in psychiatry. You are not a psychiatrist becaise you have a degree in psychology. I doubt you would pass an enhanced dbs check as you have a criminal record. But you would need to seek advice on this.

@Curtainsformeplease i feel for you stay safe

I hope you manage to get the medical degree and such that you need, @Ladieunlucky. Ignore the vipers.

🤗

Assuming you're looking to be a psychologist and not a psychiatrist... when you say you're about to do your OU course, what's the course? Is it an MSc in Psychology, or a conversion MSc? Neither of these will qualify you as a psychologist.

What area of psychology are you looking to go into? Clinical, health, forensic? They all have different pathways, and they're all pretty competitive to get into. It takes years to get there. Please do a lot of research before you set your heart on something that's very difficult to achieve, even without a conviction.

It’s not just a misuse of a word. A psychiatrist is different to a psychologist.

To become a psychiatrist you will need to go to medical school first. Psychiatrists are always qualified doctors who choose to specialise in psychiatry as opposed to cardiology or rheumatology for example.

Hi OP. Anyone working in healthcare will have an enhanced DBS check. A conviction doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t work in the sector but spent convictions will still show.

As other posters have said:

• psychiatry needs medical school plus some years of specialisation / training. Psychiatrists can prescribe drugs and diagnose a mental illness etc
• psychologists will offer talking and other therapies. They are not medical drs like psychiatrists are

Clinical psychologists do work in the nhs but these are two very different professions with different routes of entries.

I’m sorry you’ve had a shit day, hope tomorrow is better and good luck with your studies.

Do you have the required grades for medical school? You'll need to qualify as a doctor first before training as a psychiatrist.
This is exactly what my friend did to become a psychiatrist & it took the best part of ten years if not more.

Why do you think you're best placed to become a psychiatrist?

OP you cannot become a psychiatrist unless you train as a doctor.

https://www.yourhealthinmind.org/psychiatry-explained/psychiatrists-and-psychologists

People can only help if your questions make sense I don't know where you are getting your information from but change the source

If you act like this and keep on blaming bipolar you will not survive the job regardless

This and you have already enrolled in a psychology course at university according to your other post so you really need to take some proper advice ASAPbefore you go further down the wrong path.

Is your undergrad a medical degree? A psychiatrist is a doctor.

I can't believe you've got to the stage of master's degree without knowing that in order to be a psychiatrist you have to have a medical degree first.

You could be a mental health practitioner, OP, which is another career that helps people with bipolar and other mental health conditions. I don't think you have to be a medical doctor first for that.

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/psychological-therapies/roles-psychological-therapies/mental-health-and-wellbeing-practitioner

Might be more achievable rather than starting over with a degree in medicine (if that isn't your first degree?)

Hmmmm OP I think you are talking about doing something which requires a lot of intellectual rigour. Moreover planning. If you‘ve already started on the wrong course, which presumably you’ve had to pay for, in order to start a career which you don’t have the fundamental requirements for then this demonstrates a lack of both.

This will be really stressful for you. Getting a medical degree is hard by any measure, even for the cleverest among us. Please do not set yourself up to fail.

I clinically supervisee trainee psychology students when they are doing client work and come to my organisation for placement. To get a placement at my organisation they need an enhanced police check that my organisation do, regardless if they have one from uni etc.

So worth checking for things like that. No idea about psychiatry as likely all placements would be nhs since it's a Dr?

Any conviction will show up on an enhanced DBS so every time you apply for a job, assuming you qualify as a psychiatrist, you will have to explain why your conviction won’t impact on your role. I’m a nurse and have a nursing friend who has a conviction for drink driving, from 20+ years ago. She has been teetotal since then but still has to provide evidence she doesn’t have an ongoing alcohol problem. It’s unfortunate but something you should consider before deciding to study medicine.

Just popping on to say my late mother was bipolar and went to Cambridge.
My niece is too. Both masters graduates. I hope that helps.

My daughter will a doctor of forensic psychology which is analytical. They work with the police and the probation service. They cannot prescribe drugs.