Careers in mental health – clinical

Page content: Pathways to a career in mental health | Returning to a career in mental health | Private sector opportunties | International recruitment

Pathways to a career in mental health

Clinical

Mental health professionals advance their careers by developing clinical expertise in positions of increasing responsibility. From an entry-level position, a mental health worker can progress to become a senior clinician in their own discipline. Senior clinicians have the opportunity to provide clinical supervision to less experienced members of staff and to students. Advancement is then possible to a discipline senior position in an area mental health service (AMHS). The discipline senior has overall responsibility for ensuring clinicians in their particular discipline have support and supervision.

Further professional opportunities are available for discipline seniors to provide leadership across the state. For example, senior psychiatric nurses regularly meet as members of the Senior Psychiatric Nurses Forum to collaborate on professional issues of mutual interest.

Nurse practitioners

Victoria was one of the first states to introduce the nurse practitioner role. Nurse practitioners (NP) are registered nurses with advanced educational preparation and experience who are authorised to practise in an expanded nursing role. They can work in a diverse range of clinical settings – from acute hospitals to aged care and community settings.

NPs have also developed the skills and knowledge to expand their role to include aspects of care that may have traditionally been performed by other health professionals, such as prescribing medicines and ordering investigations and tests. In Victoria, registered nurses in divisions 1, 3 or 4 are eligible to be endorsed as NPs.

The title 'nurse practitioner' is protected in an amendment to the Nurses Act 1993. In Victoria, this legislation prevents use of the title by anyone who is not endorsed by the Nurses Board of Victoria as an NP. Similar restrictions apply in other states and territories.

Clinical academic

Clinical academic positions in mental health link a university with a public mental health service. They offer individuals with a significant academic background and extensive experience in clinical roles an opportunity to maintain a clinical position and have a teaching role. These positions have leadership, management, research, clinical and teaching responsibilities.

Management

Opportunities exist for mental health professionals who are interested in pursuing a career in management. Many hospitals provide frontline management courses to assist and support those in their first management position. These could include team leader positions in community mental health services and assistant nurse manager (ANUM) positions in psychiatric inpatient units. With experience in either of these roles advancement is then possible to an area mental health service manager position or to a unit manager position. More senior roles are available for mental health service managers to represent the service in general hospitals as managers of the overall mental health service.

Training and education

Victoria has a significant number of mental health education and training providers representing each specialism in mental health. These include:

• forensic
• personality disorder
• dual diagnosis (mental health and drug and alcohol)
• dual disability (mental health and intellectual disability)
• family therapy
• eating disorders
• child and adolescent mental health
• early psychosis and youth mental health
• transcultural mental health
• psychosocial rehabilitation and support.

Training and educator roles would attract individuals with significant clinical experience, teaching and possibly tertiary qualifications in their particular area of expertise and interest. Opportunities to gain teaching experience are available through the three education and training cluster projects.

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Returning to a career in mental health

At some point in their career many mental health professionals feel the need for a change or to simply have a break. The mental health sector encourages and supports individuals to return to a career in mental health and provides training and professional development opportunities to ensure their skills and experience are continually updated and improved.

Jobseeker websites, as well as government and non-government websites, provide information into available positions and career opportunities.

Registered nurses who participate in the Return to Nursing Program may be eligible for incentive grants under the Commonwealth-funded Bringing Nurses Back into the Workforce program. The program encourages registered and enrolled nurses who have been employed previously in the Australian nursing workforce but have not worked as a nurse or midwife in Australia for 12 months to return to work in a public or private hospital.

Social workers who are members of the AASW are also eligible for career support. See the Horizon Career Centre website.

Psychxchange is an online recruitment and business service for psychologists, provided by the APS.

OT Australia Victoria provides a list of job opportunities for occupational therapists in Victoria on its website.

The Australian College of Mental Health Nurses offers a listing of positions for mental health nurses across Australia.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) website provides a listing of positions in psychiatry across Victoria and interstate.

Private sector opportunities

Private sector mental health services play an important role in providing mental health care in Victoria and employ nearly 10 per cent of Australia's mental health workforce. The Victorian Government endorses having a mix of public and private sector employment opportunities for mental health professionals (see Because mental health matters: The Victorian mental health strategy 2009–19). Several jurisdictions in Australia already have rights of private practice (ROPP) for mental health clinicians and this might also be introduced in Victoria in the future.

The Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and General Practitioners scheme, through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), allows for psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists to provide assessment and treatment as a Medicare-funded service.

The Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program provides non-MBS items to general practices and others who engage mental health nurses to provide clinical care for people with severe mental health disorders.

International recruitment

The Australian Government, through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), provides a range of migration programs for skilled migrants to settle in Australia. Details of government skilled-migration programs providing permanent and temporary residence can be found on the DIAC website at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) website.

DIAC provides a range of booklets to assist applicants planning to migrate to Australia and these are available from the Visas, Immigration and Refugees section of the DIAC site.

To process an application, DIAC needs to classify an applicant's skills and qualifications by Australian standards. To do so, DIAC nominates the relevant professional body as the assessing authority for the applicant. Below are the professional bodies for each mental health professional:

Psychology: Australian Psychological Society (APS) website
Social work: Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) website
Occupational therapy: Occupational Therapy Council (Aust & NZ) Inc website
Nursing: Nurses Board of Victoria website
Medicine: Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) website

Supporting documentation is then supplied to the professional assessing authority. Once completed, a written statement is sent to the applicant indicating if they meet the Australian requirements to migrate and seek work in their profession. If these requirements have been met, the applicant can submit this statement with a DIAC visa application.

For information about living and working in Victoria, visit the Department of Planning and Community Development's Live in Victoria website.

Prospective migrants considering locating in regional Victoria may be eligible to access the Victorian Government Region of Choice program. This is a recruitment and retention service for health professionals in regional Victoria. For more information, visit Victoria's Health Workforce website.

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