Let’s take a look at the career options in mental healthcare and the opportunities that are available.
A mental healthcare team
Psychiatrists, psychologists, pharmacists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and occupational therapists all work together in multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) to ensure that the mental health needs of people receiving care are met. Being part of an MDT is a collaborative process - service users work alongside the team, playing an active role in the decisions around their care.
St Patrick's Mental Health Services (SPMHS) is the largest, independent, not-for-profit mental health service provider in Ireland.
Let’s take a closer look at the roles that are part of an MDT at SPMHS.
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specialises in preventing, diagnosing and treating mental health difficulties. They are trained to help patients and their families to cope with stress and crises.
The medical care team with SPMHS is made up of consultant psychiatrists and registrar psychiatrists (graduate doctors who are in training to become consultant psychiatrists).
Medical Director with SPMHS, Professor Paul Fearon, is a Consultant Psychiatrist. He explains that “in medicine, no two days are the same, no two patients are the same and even two patients with the same diagnosis won't present the same way.”
“I think of psychiatry as almost as a “whodunit”, except instead of being a detective story, the question you're trying to ask is why is this person presenting to me today with this set of symptoms or complaints and how can I best help them? There is a real sense of satisfaction in your job."
“The important thing in medicine is that you have outside interests to help prevent the risk of burnout. It’s an intense job - you're dealing with people on a very human level. Being an excellent doctor is being a human being and that means knowing when to switch off at the end of your day. That doesn't mean you're heartless, inhuman or like a machine - it's a skill it helps you to keep your humanity.”
Dr Aileen Murtagh, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with Willow Grove Adolescent Unit at SPMHS, says the privilege of working with young people and their families on their recovery journey is the most rewarding part of her job.
Psychologist
Psychologists are clinicians and researchers who study cognitive (mental), emotional, and social behaviours by treating, observing, interpreting, and documenting relationships and environmental factors (the world around them) that may affect a person. They take into consideration someone’s thoughts, emotions, reactions, or behaviours to try to understand patterns that changes someone’s ability to function.
Niamh Willis is a Clinical Psychologist at SPMHS. She explains that “the kind of personal qualities that somebody might need to work as a psychologist include the capacity to be non-judgmental, to be compassionate, empathetic and warm and also have a capacity to build relationships with other people. You also have to be able to show resilience when dealing with difficult stories”.
She also explains it’s important to recognise that psychologists are scientist practitioners – “we are really passionate about publishing our research in journals and contributing to the evidence base around what's effective for treating mental health difficulties.”
Dr Aideen O’ Neill, Clinical Psychologist with SPMHS, explains that one of the most rewarding parts of her job “is to allow people the space to understand that the things that have happened to them in their lives have a big impact on how they struggle now. When we focus on understanding what has happened to us, instead of what is wrong with us, this can help us to understand that so much of how we suffer is not our fault. Realising this can help people to feel like they have some power to change some of the things in their lives that might be causing problems."
“It feels like a privilege and an honour to help somebody to get to that new understanding of their difficulties. It’s very rewarding.”
Pharmacist
Pharmacists help to identify and discuss the most appropriate medicines for service users, check the medicines that they have been prescribed, order these medicines and give service users information about medicines that have been prescribed.
If you are interested in science or healthcare and have good attention to detail, pharmacy is a good career option. Pharmacy offers opportunities with a variety of job options after qualification, both in Ireland and abroad.
Within a hospital setting, pharmacy is a clinical role, working as part of a healthcare team to ensure safe, effective and economic delivery of drug treatment. Working in a hospital pharmacy offers great training opportunities as you get to work as part of a large healthcare team.
Ita Fitzgerald, Senior Pharmacist with the SPMHS team, tells us that “I was inspired by the other pharmacists that I saw working in mental health… I really feel like they made a difference to the care of the service users they looked after. From a pharmacy skills perspective, we get to put a lot of our training into practice."
Ita finds that pharmacists have a lot of contact with service users, which gives pharmacists a unique perspective: “mental health is a really rewarding job”.
Nurse
Mental health nurses, also known as psychiatric nurses, work with people who are experiencing mental health difficulties. Mental health nurses work with people to empower them in a way that promotes recovery, independence and self-care. The nurses at SPMHS work in a diverse range of settings across SPMHS. The type of care and level of supports provided to service users is individual to each person, depending on their needs.
Grace Adams, a mental health nurse with SPMHS, explains that “nursing is a highly rewarding job: it is very tough and demanding, but it’s the bond and camaraderie with colleagues that makes the days easier when you've had had a hard time.”
“Nursing isn't just a 13-hour shift on a ward. There's so many opportunities in nursing: from working as a clinical placement coordinator, a community nurse, pediatric nursing, working in addictions, a suicide and self-harm prevention nurse, accident and emergency nurse, nurse education, the opportunities really are endless. Nursing is a well-travelled career: there are so many Irish nurses all over the world because of how well we're trained."
“It’s an amazing career and the rewards and you get from it make it worthwhile. If you are a compassionate, empathic and a caring person, then please do consider nursing.”
Shane Kirwan, Nurse Practice Development Coordinator with SPMHS, says that dealing with service users and making sure of getting good outcomes for them - that they get well and stable after receiving treatment - is the most rewarding part of his job. See more from Shane on his role here.
Occupational therapist (OT)
Occupational therapy is a profession concerned with what we do in our daily lives and how this both affects and is affected by our health.
OTs are the healthcare profession that uses therapy or treatment to support a person's health. While psychology is the emotional side of things, OTs actually look at what people do to occupy their time and help them make the necessary changes to live their life to the fullest.
If you're considering occupational therapy, it’s really important to know why. OTs are interested in human behaviour and performance. They're interested in what people do and why they do it. They're interested in learning and getting to know people - their individual differences and abilities, their personalities, interests and strengths - and are always looking and contributing to research.
Working and communicating with people is so important. OTs are great problem-solvers and at being creative; coming up with new ideas and finding new ways of doing things is a huge part of being an OT.
Anna McCormick, OT with SPMHS, adds that “the most rewarding part of my job is how closely I get to work with individuals, helping them identify what's important for them to change and working with them on the particular priorities that they have. The person's really in charge of their treatment.”
Social worker
Social work aims to help people make decisions which will improve their quality of life. A social worker is somebody trained to review someone’s needs and to help empower a person by focusing on their strengths, abilities, natural coping strategies, and family and friends. They may advocate for the person (speak up for them) and refer them to other services if needed. They will work with them and their family to reduce the effects of isolation, relationship difficulties, low income, and lack of housing.
Elaine Donnelly, Head of Social Work with SPMHS, says that social work is about promoting human rights and promoting equality of access to services for all people in society.
“Like all of the mental health disciplines, being a social worker is a really demanding job. It requires a variety of skills which are essential to our practice. You must have a keen sense of empathy and human rights awareness, strong interpersonal skills, committed to social justice and having an interest in advocating for the most vulnerable in society is key. Having a social work qualification is versatile, it can lead you to lots of different settings and is an interesting line of work”, explains Elaine.
More career insights
If you would like more information about what it’s like to work in mental healthcare and what a mental health career looks like, you can watch our video about mental health careers below.
