A mental health worker provides care for people with mental health concerns or developmental disabilities. You will mostly work under the supervision of a registered nurse in psychiatric hospitals and residential mental health facilities. Some of your core job responsibilities include assessing and interacting with patients to develop treatment plans and strategies, administering therapeutic care, monitoring patients, leading individual, family, or group therapy to foster group support and growth. You will be involved in case management, brokerage services, pharmaceutical assistance, chart documentation, and other insurance concerns.
You are also expected to facilitate communication between care, service, and support providers. Important skills for any mental health worker are crisis intervention, mental health, patient care, CPR, vital signs, and great verbal and non-verbal communication skills. The average mental health worker earns $17.72 per hour or $36,000 annually. Most of them have a bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, criminal justice, or other related fields.
What is a Mental Health Worker?
What Does a Mental Health Worker Do
There are certain skills that many mental health workers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, emotional skills and organizational skills.
How To Become a Mental Health Worker
If you're interested in becoming a mental health worker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 59.1% of mental health workers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.9% of mental health workers have master's degrees. Even though most mental health workers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Mental Health Worker Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a mental health worker can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as social worker, progress to a title such as therapist and then eventually end up with the title patient care manager.
Average Salary for a Mental Health Worker
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Mental Health Workers
1. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
2. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. New York University
New York, NY • Private
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. San Jose State University
San Jose, CA • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
10. Coppin State University
Baltimore, MD • Private
Top Skills For a Mental Health Worker
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 19.4% of mental health workers listed crisis intervention on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and emotional skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Mental Health Worker Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Mental Health Worker templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Mental Health Worker resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Mental Health Worker Demographics
Mental Health Worker Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among mental health workers, 65.1% of them are women, while 34.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among mental health workers is White, which makes up 80.9% of all mental health workers.
- The most common foreign language among mental health workers is Spanish at 68.5%.
Online Courses For Mental Health Worker That You May Like
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Interventions: Drug & Alcohol Addiction & Mental Health - Integrative Holistic Approach...
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Interventions - Understand Drug & Alcohol Addiction & Mental Health. How to help people...
This course will help institutions and individuals better manage the mental health challenges of being a healthcare worker. Healthcare providers such as the University Health Network (UHN) address the mental health needs of their staff through several initiatives intended to help build resilience and to provide respite from the demands of their work. This was critical during the pandemic but, of course, healthcare workers encounter high levels of stress even without a pandemic. The primary purpo...
Best States For a Mental Health Worker
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a mental health worker. The best states for people in this position are California, New York, New Jersey, and Washington. Mental health workers make the most in California with an average salary of $53,576. Whereas in New York and New Jersey, they would average $53,076 and $52,619, respectively. While mental health workers would only make an average of $48,447 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$53,576
Avg. Salary
2. New Hampshire
$45,560
Avg. Salary
3. North Carolina
$43,047
Avg. Salary
How Do Mental Health Worker Rate Their Jobs?
Top Mental Health Worker Employers
Most Common Employers For Mental Health Worker
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alvarado Parkway Institute | $45,771 | $22.01 | 44 |
| 2 | Childrens Community Services | $45,400 | $21.83 | 56 |
| 3 | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital | $42,672 | $20.52 | 65 |
| 4 | Glade Run Lutheran Services | $41,347 | $19.88 | 83 |
| 5 | Peoples Services | $41,233 | $19.82 | 38 |
| 6 | HSS | $39,526 | $19.00 | 36 |
| 7 | Brattleboro Retreat | $38,236 | $18.38 | 100 |
| 8 | Sheppard Pratt | $37,840 | $18.19 | 404 |
| 9 | Butler Hospital | $37,773 | $18.16 | 64 |
| 10 | College Hospital Laguna Woods | $37,286 | $17.93 | 55 |
Mental Health Worker Videos
Becoming a Mental Health Worker FAQs
Do you need a degree to be a mental health worker?
Yes, you need a degree to be a mental health worker. Typically people who work as mental health workers have a bachelor's degree in social work or psychology, as well as any licensure that is required by the state that they live and work in.
How long does it take to become a mental health worker?
It takes four to six years to become a mental health worker. Typically people who work as mental health workers have a bachelor's degree in social work or psychology, as well as any licensure that is required by the state that they live and work in.
What is considered a mental health worker?
There are a number of roles that are considered a mental health worker, and these include psychologist, counselor, or psychiatrist. Many types of mental health care professionals can help a person achieve their mental health goals.
What qualifications do you need to be a mental health worker?
The primary qualification needed to become a mental health worker is relevant education. Levels of acceptable education vary for mental health workers, but minimum standards are required to be considered for a position in this field.