How to Become a Mental Health Worker

Good health is key to a flourishing and successful society, and mental health is a key aspect of this measure. Mental health workers fulfil a vital role in maintaining the mental health of the nation in the midst of what is a growing mental health crisis in the UK. Between 2020 and 2022, rates of depression doubled in the UK, meaning that across the country there is a greater demand for mental health workers than ever before. In fact, 12% of all medical employment vacancies are in the mental health sector.

A career as a mental health worker is a career where your main focus is on serving and supporting others in need, as it is a career that will give you a sense of pride and achievement that only a few job opportunities can provide. You will be amazed at just how much personal growth and development this role can bring.

From how to become a mental health worker, to finding a mental health worker job, here’s everything you need to know about pursuing a career in the mental health sector

What is a Mental Health Worker?

A mental health worker is an individual who provides support to individuals (both within the community and within a hospital environment) that are experiencing issues with their mental health, such as emotional breakdowns, or psychiatric issues and illnesses. Mental health workers generally don’t hold graduate or doctoral level qualifications, but their role is an essential one at the front line of mental health support in the UK.

The duties of a mental health worker are often similar to those provided by a medical assistant or mental health nurse, and the primary focus of a mental health worker is on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their patients. As a mental health worker, you will work as part of a larger team that is primarily made up of other medical professionals. Unlike other medical professionals, you will work closely with your patients and develop a relationship with them, as you support them on their journey to improved or recovered mental health.

The main roles and duties that you can expect to fulfil as a mental health worker include:

• Focusing on the safety and wellbeing of your patients at all times
• Helping your patients to fulfil their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. This could involve basic housekeeping, feeding and other activities such as dressing the patient
• Observations form a key part of the role; you will note and report any behavioural changes or abnormal psychosocial interactions that you observe during your time with the patient
• In conjunction with providing feeding assistance, you will also monitor the calorie intake and output of your patients, to ensure they are nutritionally fulfilled
• Other clinical activities that you undertake will be determined by your patient’s care treatment plan, but could include observations, or administering medication when under the supervision of the registered doctor or nurse
• Providing crisis intervention when needed
• Engaging your patients in activities that will boost their mental health, such as therapies and outdoor engagement, which have both been shown to promote healing
• Taking regular observations of your patients. These could include recording their vitals, weight, height, and other measurements that will assist their doctors and nurses in treating them appropriately
• Safely and appropriately restraining your patients if they become physically violent or aggressive
• Helping to intake new patients: working with them to identify their mental health issues and earn their trust
• Working with the other medical professionals involved in your patient’s case to establish the best treatment plans and care strategies that will meet their unique, individual needs

There are a host of different settings that you could work in as a mental health worker, depending on your specialism, interests and area of expertise. You will find mental health workers operating within the community, by visiting their patients in their own homes. If you prefer to work in a medical environment, there are also opportunities available for mental health workers to work in settings such as mental health clinics, psychiatric assessment units, hospitals, and emergency centres. There is also a huge demand for mental health workers to support the teams within geriatric care facilities, where many of the elderly residents need significant support to meet their mental health needs.

Working hours as a mental health worker can be unpredictable, as often patients require round-the-clock care, which means that shift work is very common in this profession. This is an attractive proposition for many, as it means that mental health worker jobs can be adapted to work around childcare schedules and other personal needs.

Personal Qualities of a Mental Health Worker

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a successful mental health worker? You could be right if you consider yourself to have patience and compassion, as these are the two most important personal qualities of any good mental health worker.

Other personal traits that would mean you were well suited to this role include:

• The ability to remain calm in a crisis, so that you can help your patients to remain calm and emotionally stable
• The ability to think on your feet. The role of a mental health worker can be unpredictable, so you need to respond accordingly
• Being able to work well as part of a team
• Keen attention to detail, so that you’re quick to observe, and respond to, the changing needs of your patients
• A positive attitude
• The ability to be empathetic and non-judgemental, even in difficult or unfamiliar situations
• The desire to see your patients achieve their goals, and the ability to celebrate their victories like your own

What a Mental Health Worker Does

The role of a mental health worker is an incredibly varied one, and your duties will depend on where you are working and on the specific needs of your patient. A mental health worker supporting a young person in their own home is likely to fulfil different duties to a mental health worker working with elderly dementia patients in a care home setting, for example.  To give you a more comprehensive idea of what your day-to-day role as a mental health worker could involve, here is a breakdown of the different types of mental health worker opportunities available, and what is involved in each option:

• Child Mental Health Support Worker. If you’ve always wanted to work with children then a role as a child (or juvenile) mental health worker could be the right choice for you. Often working from mental health clinics, you will liaise closely with both families and schools to provide young people with the support and skills that they need to overcome their mental health issues and succeed
• Community Mental Health Support Worker. Supporting individuals with mental health issues so that they can remain in their own homes and communities is a vital aspect of mental health support. Within this type of role, you will work in the community, visiting patients in their homes to provide personal support, including care and even housekeeping assistance. You will work closely with the district nursing team in this role, meaning that excellent communication skills will be vital
• Geriatric Mental Health Support Worker. This is perhaps one of the most common groups of mental health workers in the UK (and certainly the subsector with the largest number of vacancies right now). If you choose to work as a geriatric mental health worker then you will be working primarily within care homes, offering personal and mental health support to those individuals living within these environments. This is a great choice if you have additional dementia care qualifications
• Hospital-Based Mental Health Support Worker. Mental health support workers that are based within hospitals will either work with those who have been institutionalised as a result of their mental health conditions, or those who are suffering from declined mental health as a result of long-term hospitalisation. You will work closely with other hospital-based mental health specialists in this role, including nursing and clinician teams

How Much Does a Mental Health Worker Earn?

Calculating a mental health worker’s salary will depend on where you are working, and how much experience you have in your field. According to talent.com, the average UK salary for a mental health assistant is £23,389, whilst the median mental health worker salary in the UK is £22,935 per year.

If you are new to the field then you can expect your starting salary to be slightly lower than this figure, with the same statistical research suggesting that the average salary for an entry-level position is £18,525. Once you have several years of experience and have advanced your career with professional qualifications, you will find that the most experienced workers in the sector are earning a median salary of £42,159 per year.

The largest employer of mental health workers in the UK is the NHS (National Health Service). This means that as well as taking advantage of competitive salaries with the potential for overtime payments, you will also be able to benefit from a comprehensive NHS employee benefits package. These benefits include:

• An NHS pension.
• Opportunities for personal development and enhanced career progression
• Generous packages for maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, and sick leave
• Paid annual leave, with your annual leave entitlement increasing with your NHS length of service. You will effectively gain extra days of annual leave for every five years of continuous service you complete within the NHS
• You will also benefit from a range of NHS discounts in shops, hotels and restaurants across the UK. You are likely to be pleasantly surprised by just how generous some of the discounts available can be

Qualifications Needed to Become a Mental Health Worker

For those looking to pursue a career in mental health, one of the most attractive traits of the mental health worker role is that it requires fewer official qualifications than other roles in the sector. In fact, there is no set and recognised list of qualifications that you need in order to pursue a career as a mental health worker; this will vary on a job-to-job basis.

You can expect to be asked to demonstrate good literacy and numeracy skills, so GCSEs (or equivalent) in both maths and English are often requested, and would certainly be beneficial. This is because you will be expected to keep detailed records of activities or any appointments you attended with your patient as part of your job role; high literacy levels will be key to fulfilling these criteria effectively.

Experience of working or volunteering with people who have mental health issues is also a highly sought-after skill for those seeking mental health worker jobs.

To stand the best possible chance of securing the role you want, there are many mental health courses and qualifications you can obtain that would considerably enhance your application. Depending on the type of mental health work you are interested in you could consider courses in the fields of:

• Health and Social Care
• Awareness of Dementia
• Preparing to Work in Adult Social Care
• Nutrition and Health
• Understanding Substance Abuse

Many of these courses can be undertaken online and remotely, and often you can work in an entry-level or trainee position, gaining experience within your chosen field, whilst you complete your professional qualifications.

The most important qualification you will need to work in a mental health worker role, however, is your personality. Your enthusiasm, empathy and ability to relate to your potential patients is likely to be the factor that will determine whether you are the right person for the role.

On-the-Job Training

As the role of a mental health worker is such a hands-on role, much of the training you will need to do to complete your role will be hands-on training. If you work within the NHS, as many mental health workers do, then you will have access to personal development and enhanced career progression opportunities (in the form of on-the-job training) as one of the perks of your employment contract. Each member of staff within the NHS is offered an annual review which is focused on their progress and development over the previous months, as well as looking forward to their career aspirations, and how they can be supported.

Depending on your job role grade and qualification level, you may also be entitled to paid study leave in order to help you reach your mental health worker career goals.

To emphasise one more time, remember that your ‘soft skills’ (such as your ability to listen, and your ability to empathise and understand the needs of others) are considered the most important aspects of being a good mental health worker, and there is no training you can undertake to develop these skills; simply working within the role and passing on your own life experiences is the best on-the-job training you can complete.

Professional Bodies

Once you begin your career as a mental health worker, you might want to consider joining the Association of Mental Health Providers. This is a professional body that “is dedicated to supporting the development of the mental health voluntary and community sector to effectively meet the needs of individuals, their mental health and well-being.” The Association of Mental Health Providers offers a huge wealth of resources to support the education and professional development of individuals working within the field, and also boasts a members’ area where mental health workers and other mental health professionals can seek support and advice from their peers.

Working with your peers, and learning from them, is an essential part of your development as a mental health worker, so joining a peer-based organisation such as this one could be incredibly beneficial. According to the mental health organisation Mind UK, we now know that one in four individuals in the UK suffers from mental health issues of some kind. The most common mental health condition is mixed anxiety and depression, which impacts 8 out of 100 Britons every year. Working as a mental health worker can help not only support those suffering from these issues but also destigmatise the struggle with mental health in the UK.