Mental healthcare offers a variety of career opportunities, and most require advanced degrees.
There are different levels of licensure within the field of social work, according to Megan Morrissey, the master's degree program director at the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work. While social workers at each level encounter mental healthcare issues in aspects of their work, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Workers (LICSWs) do the most direct work in mental healthcare.
"It's a profession that draws from lots of different disciplines but it also has its own particular niche," explains Morrissey. "Social workers are always looking at the person in a social context; it's the individual within the family, the community."
A bachelor's degree in social work may lead to entry-level mental health positions, such as a hospital psychiatric aide. In order to diagnose or assess patients, social workers must have at least a master's degree, two years of clinical practice supervised by a licensed clinical social worker and licensure.
"Many social workers practice either privately or with a group attached to a health care clinic," Morrissey says. "They assess, diagnose, give treatment and do just about the whole range of mental health services with the exception of prescribing."
Morrissey recommends that undergraduates have a good liberal background that includes statistics and physiology.
Psychologists need doctoral degrees
Like social workers, psychologists cannot prescribe medication, but they must have doctoral degrees to practice in Minnesota, according to Holly Hatch-Surisook, associate director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota Department of Psychology.
