Mental health or psychiatric technicians often begin their careers working as psychiatric aides, helping patients with daily tasks such as grooming and assisting with recreational activities. With more education, technicians perform clerical duties, such as admitting patients and keeping records. They may take part in treatment planning, administer medications and run counseling sessions. Successful aides understand mental illness, perform basic nursing procedures and demonstrate patience and organization. These duties require skills and knowledge that college programs in psychiatry, counseling and human services technology provide.
Many programs for the mental health aide technician take one or two years to complete. Colleges award certificates and associate degrees with this label. At the College of Southern Nevada (csn.edu), for instance, students receive a certificate of completion for just one semester of coursework. Students who take a more complete slate of classes for a full year receive a certificate of achievement in mental health services. The associate of applied science degree requires two years of study.
Classes for the mental health technician teach basic issues surrounding mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance abuse with titles such as introduction to disability services, understanding developmental disabilities, issues in substance abuse and understanding mental illness. Students prepare for crisis situations and hospital care with courses like these offered at College of Southern Nevada: role of the technician, conflict prevention and response training, medication fundamentals, positive behavior supports, allied therapies, life span development and advanced therapeutic interventions. CSN's program includes training in the field, as well.
Not all colleges offer the specialized mental health technician degree. Appropriate degrees may have titles such as human services technology, mental health services or psychiatric aide. The human services technology two-year program through Central Piedmont Community College (cpcc.edu) includes a broader base of courses than the typical psychiatric technician degree, teaching concepts about homelessness, teen pregnancy and domestic violence. Such degrees prepare students for social services occupations including that of the mental health technician.
Few if any colleges currently offer bachelor or graduate degrees specifically for mental health technicians. Those looking for more schooling will likely need to choose a more focused major, such as the counseling and human services program through Northern Kentucky University (nku.edu). This four-year program awards students a bachelor degree with background appropriate for the psychiatric technician since it includes courses in group theories and practice, crisis intervention, human behavior, mental health counseling and sociology as well as field experience.