Tips To Progress Towards a Career in Mental Health

Briar Curley is a 21-year-old recent graduate with a BSc in Psychology. She is currently a part-time support worker with The National Autistic Society and volunteering in an early intervention service.

This year I finished my BSc Psychology with limited experience in supporting mental health. When I finally gained some roles in my third year, parts of the country were hit by flooding and then lockdown. This left me to travel back and finish my assignments in the slight chaos of my family home – cutting these new experiences short. My mental health has been a little wobbly as a result but that’s okay. Taking some time after my assignments for self-care has been really beneficial. There’s nothing wrong with prioritising your well-being. 

I decided to use my time to look out for opportunities or new knowledge. The way I try to maintain my well-being is by keeping busy and feeling like I’m still making some progress no matter how small. For example, I planned ahead or sought ways to gain experience, hopefully leading to a permanent job within mental health down the line. With persistent effort (and constantly monitoring Linkedin, Indeed and several charities) I have finally gotten myself a support worker position.

I love to pass on knowledge to help others so I want to give some advice for those who are recent graduates like me or psychology students who want to know how they could work towards a career in this area: 

Online courses

There are some amazing free courses that could expand your knowledge in specific areas that could help prepare you for a job or introduce you to a client group you’ve never explored in depth. Future Learn is a good place to start! 

Volunteering locally with charities

Do a google search for local charities and see if they have vacancies or email them directly to extend your interest. There are some wonderful organisations doing great work that you could be involved in. It is easier to undertake around studies/work commitments and you can get a taste of a particular area (dementia, addiction, eating disorders, etc).

Bank Support Worker/Healthcare Assistant

Bank staff have the ability to select available shifts that they can work, meaning you are choosing when you come in. Undertaking a bank role can give you a head start after university, especially if (like me) your degree lacked a placement. A role such as this provides direct clinical experience, developing new skills such as risk assessment and patient observation. 

Voluntary research assistant

Ask your psychology department whether they have any current research projects they may want help with. This can work whether you are a current student or alumni. An opportunity like this can provide research experience besides your final year dissertation and you could end up being an author on a published paper. 

Peer mentoring / Nightline 

Not every university has this as an option so check that your university has these services. Nightline is an amazing listening service that allows students to support other students during the night with a number of issues. Peer mentoring allows the more experienced students to support first years. Both services will give you experience supporting others emotionally and will develop your interpersonal skills.

None of us could have predicted this. I certainly wish I’d been this persistent sooner looking back. Whether you are a student, or a graduate just take every day slowly – this pandemic will pass. I hope these ideas for experience help anyone who feels like they want to keep working towards their goals, but they don’t know where to start. 

However, don’t forget to look after yourselves first! There’s always time after university to build on your experience.