How To Become A Psychiatric Aide: What It Is and Career Path

What is a psychiatric aide and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a psychiatric aide. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.73 an hour? That's $32,724 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 16,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePsychiatric AideUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $32,724

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.5

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.57%

Asian 4.59%

Black or African American 27.26%

Hispanic or Latino 15.35%

Unknown 4.16%

White 48.06%

Gender

female 63.40%

male 36.60%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a psychiatric aide

Explore psychiatric aide education requirements

Most common psychiatric aide degrees

Bachelor's

44.3 %

Associate

19.2 %

High School Diploma

19.0 %

Start to develop specific psychiatric aide skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	34.05%
Vital Signs	14.88%
Social Work	8.62%
Crisis Intervention	6.41%
Blood Pressure	6.33%

Complete relevant psychiatric aide training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New psychiatric aides learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a psychiatric aide based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real psychiatric aide resumes.

Research psychiatric aide duties and responsibilities

Prioritize and utilize therapeutic communication and CPI skills to diffuse and manage difficult situations.
Assist patients in becoming accustom to hospital routines and encourage them to participate in social and recreational activities to promote rehabilitation.
Train in cpr but certificate has expire.
Assist residents with adl and social skills.

Prepare your psychiatric aide resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your psychiatric aide resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a psychiatric aide resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable psychiatric aide resume templates

Build a professional psychiatric aide resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your psychiatric aide resume.