Mental health technician vs mental health nurse

The differences between mental health technicians and mental health nurses can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a mental health nurse has an average salary of $106,812, which is higher than the $32,118 average annual salary of a mental health technician.

The top three skills for a mental health technician include patients, vital signs and CPR. The most important skills for a mental health nurse are patients, psychiatric mental, and PMHNP.

Mental health technician vs mental health nurse overview

	Mental Health Technician	Mental Health Nurse
Yearly salary	$32,118	$106,812
Hourly rate	$15.44	$51.35
Growth rate	9%	6%
Number of jobs	103,710	86,884
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Average age	34	44
Years of experience	-	2

What does a mental health technician do?

A mental health technician's primary responsibility is to provide care and assistance to patients with mental health issues. Their tasks mainly revolve around administering scheduled and prescribed medication, monitoring vital signs, assisting during therapy sessions, and assessing patients' progress and behavior. They may also have administrative support tasks such as processing necessary documentation, preparing reports, managing schedules, and even reaching out to patients' guardians and families. A mental health technician may also build a healthy rapport with patients, giving them guidance and positive influence.

What does a mental health nurse do?

A mental health nurse is responsible for assisting with the diagnosis and treatment plans of patients with mental health complications. Mental health nurses handle high-quality nursing care under mental health professionals' supervision within a hospital or mental health institution. They support in performing therapeutic activities, administering medical examinations, and counseling patients to know more about their conditions. A mental health nurse also does administrative tasks as needed, such as organizing and updating patients' information on the database, processing treatment payments, and responding to the family's inquiries and concerns.

Mental health technician vs mental health nurse salary

Mental health technicians and mental health nurses have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Mental Health Technician	Mental Health Nurse
Average salary	$32,118	$106,812
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $39,000	Between $62,000 And $182,000
Highest paying City	Sacramento, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Vermont	California
Best paying company	CARE	Community Health Systems
Best paying industry	Health Care	Government

Differences between mental health technician and mental health nurse education

There are a few differences between a mental health technician and a mental health nurse in terms of educational background:

	Mental Health Technician	Mental Health Nurse
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Most common major	Psychology	Nursing
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	Duke University

Mental health technician vs mental health nurse demographics

Here are the differences between mental health technicians' and mental health nurses' demographics:

	Mental Health Technician	Mental Health Nurse
Average age	34	44
Gender ratio	Male, 36.0% Female, 64.0%	Male, 16.9% Female, 83.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 14.3% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 6.4% White, 51.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%	Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 9.1% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	15%	9%

Differences between mental health technician and mental health nurse duties and responsibilities

Mental health technician example responsibilities.

Prevent and manage aggressive behavior among patients and administer CPR in emergency intervention.
Assist and organize workshops consisting of education, personal self-defense, CPR, and other techniques relating to mental health patients.
Assist in taking care of mental health patients, doing rounds on the ward, helping patients with compassion and care.
Apply immeasurable levels of compassion to preserve and safeguard the dignity of patients at all times.
Observe patient behaviors, if patients become physically violent, CPI training restraint techniques may become necessary.
Conduct patient rounds, assist with ADL care, offer therapeutic support, and provide written reports on assign patients

Mental health nurse example responsibilities.

Interact with patients, coordinate and successfully manage therapeutic group activities with unit staffs under supervision of clinical instructor.
Provide psychiatric evaluation, medication management and education for patients with serious and persistent mental illness and debilitating personality disorders.
Provide transportation, medication management, daily ADL's, housekeeping, and feeding.
Provide hourly room checks and ADL's according to care plan implement by the attending physician.
Initiate emergency resuscitative measures according to adult resuscitation protocols.
Perform case management for outpatient veterans that include psychiatric treatment.

Mental health technician vs mental health nurse skills

Common mental health technician skills

Patients, 26%
Vital Signs, 7%
CPR, 6%
Social Work, 5%
Crisis Intervention, 5%
Patient Safety, 4%

Common mental health nurse skills

Patients, 22%
Psychiatric Mental, 10%
PMHNP, 6%
Medication Management, 6%
CPR, 5%
Crisis Intervention, 4%

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Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Industry
Mental Health Technician
Mental Health Technician vs Mental Health Nurse

Updated January 8, 2025

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