Mental health is high on the agenda and has suffered from historic funding problems and stigma. If you’ve ever considered a career in this field, you might wonder about the required skills and qualifications. Here we look at what a mental health support worker does and the qualities you will need to do the job:
Support workers work with those considered vulnerable, including mental health disabilities, learning difficulties, young offenders, relationship problems, and the elderly. For details on Challenging behaviour course, contact https://www.tidaltraining.co.uk/learning-disability-training/challenging-behaviour-training-breakaway-techniques
Children in care will also require specialist children’s support workers, and any support work will require a detailed plan of the care and help they need that will be unique to everyone.
The advantages of this kind of work include the positive impact on the people you support. Job satisfaction is high in this role even though the work is challenging, can be emotionally draining, and involve long hours. The disadvantages include shift work, which could be a split shift system, and the high possibility of both evening and weekend work.
The skills that will be useful include the ability not to judge, patience, compassion, and to enjoy the company of a wide range of people. If you’re not a people person, this isn’t your career. You’ll need to be a good listener, offer counsel, be prepared to do small chores to help people, help people to tackle life skills, communicate with other family members and treat everyone fairly, according to their needs.
Specifically, mental health workers’ support will include essential therapy, care, monitoring conditions, and assisting with daily activities and medication. Your principal place of work will generally be a psychiatric hospital or a residential mental health facility. Training in crisis intervention and coping with urgent situations will also form part of training for this role.