Jump-Starting a Career in Mental Health and Therapy

Book excerpt: Mental health care is a challenging and rewarding field in which compassionate professionals provide patients with treatment that can help them heal and recover from mental illness. Therapists and other mental health workers treat a wide range of medical problems related to patients' emotional, psychological, and social health. This book describes several career paths that are personally fulfilling and essential for patient care, including psychiatric technicians, nursing assistants, medical assistants, orderlies, pharmacy technicians, and medical transcriptionists, among others. Some counselors, for instance, specialize in substance abuse treatment, and their expertise is in high demand because of the opioid crisis that is afflicting the nation.