Psychiatric social worker's responsibilities and client populations will vary significantly depending on their work setting and the teams to which they are assigned at their place of employment. They sometimes work in inpatient hospital settings and complete many tasks to support patients suffering through mental health issues. This is a highly rewarding profession that also offers a range of employment opportunities.
The tasks and responsibilities that they fulfill in this capacity include, but are not limited to, attending to patients suffering complex and hard-to-manage conditions who are in deep emotional stress and/or could be a danger to themselves or others. Others include psychosocial and risk assessments, individualized and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention and support, care coordination, and discharge planning services. Psychiatric social workers are employed in a variety of settings, ranging from intensive inpatient wards to outpatient psychiatric clinics. Qualifications include graduate-level training in clinical social work methods. A master's degree in social work would be advantageous.
The average hourly salary for the position is $30.22, which amounts to $62,853 annually. The career is projected to grow substantially and create new opportunities all across the United States.
Psychiatric Social Worker Overview
Working as a Psychiatric Social Worker
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a psychiatric social worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $30.22 an hour? That's $62,853 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 81,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Psychiatric Social Worker Do
There are certain skills that many psychiatric social 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 interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a psychiatric social worker, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.6% of psychiatric social workers included treatment plans, while 10.6% of resumes included crisis intervention, and 10.1% of resumes included mental health. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the psychiatric social worker job title. But what industry to start with? Most psychiatric social workers actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become a Psychiatric Social Worker
If you're interested in becoming a psychiatric social worker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 8.6% of psychiatric social workers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 82.2% of psychiatric social workers have master's degrees. Even though most psychiatric social workers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a psychiatric social worker. When we researched the most common majors for a psychiatric social worker, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on psychiatric social worker resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a psychiatric social worker. In fact, many psychiatric social worker jobs require experience in a role such as social worker. Meanwhile, many psychiatric social workers also have previous career experience in roles such as social work internship or internship.
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Psychiatric Social Worker Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of clinical social worker you might progress to a role such as case manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title medical case manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Psychiatric Social Worker
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Washington State Dshs WSH Psychiatric Social Worker Dshs WSH Psychiatric Social Worker | Washington State Washington State | 01/07/2021 01/07/2021 | $70,30801/07/2021 $70,308 |
Washington County, Wi Outpatient Therapist-Psychiatric Social Worker Outpatient Therapist-Psychiatric Social Worker | Washington County, Wi Washington County, Wi | 12/28/2020 12/28/2020 | $63,27012/28/2020 $63,270 |
Washington State Dshs WSH Psychiatric Social Worker Dshs WSH Psychiatric Social Worker | Washington State Washington State | 12/22/2020 12/22/2020 | $79,52412/22/2020 $79,524 |
The County of San Mateo Psychiatric Social Worker/Marriage & Family Therapist I/II (Open & Promotional) Psychiatric Social Worker/Marriage & Family Therapist I/II (Open & Promotional) | The County of San Mateo The County of San Mateo | 12/22/2020 12/22/2020 | $89,66912/22/2020 $89,669 |
California Prison Health Care System Supervising Psychiatric Social Worker I, CF Supervising Psychiatric Social Worker I, CF | California Prison Health Care System California Prison Health Care System | 12/04/2020 12/04/2020 | $95,54412/04/2020 $95,544 |
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Psychiatric Social Worker Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Psychiatric Social Worker. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Psychiatric Social Worker Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Psychiatric Social Worker resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Psychiatric Social Workers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Public
5. Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
7. Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL • Public
8. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Public
9. Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH • Private
10. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Psychiatric Social 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, 13.6% of psychiatric social workers listed treatment plans on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and emotional skills are important as well.
- Treatment Plans, 13.6%
- Crisis Intervention, 10.6%
- Mental Health, 10.1%
- Group Therapy, 9.9%
- Social Workers, 7.7%
- Other Skills, 48.1% See All Psychiatric Social Worker Skills
Best States For a Psychiatric Social Worker
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a psychiatric social worker. The best states for people in this position are California, Nevada, Connecticut, and Oregon. Psychiatric social workers make the most in California with an average salary of $89,017. Whereas in Nevada and Connecticut, they would average $74,467 and $72,110, respectively. While psychiatric social workers would only make an average of $67,232 in Oregon, 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. Nevada
$74,467
Avg. Salary
2. California
$89,018
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$72,110
Avg. Salary
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Top Psychiatric Social Worker Employers
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