Mental Health Worker
What the work is
Assists individuals, families and groups with a range of mental health conditions, and those experiencing emotional difficulties, distress and crisis. Supports and empowers clients to improve their quality of life.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assesses needs of individuals, families and groups, and supports them with recovery planning by helping them manage and adapt to the complex challenges of mental health
- Provides coaching to increase recovery skills and personal capacity, including motivation, strengths, resilience and decision-making
- Provides counselling to individuals or groups, and advocates for access to necessary services and resources
- Develops and facilitates referrals to other useful services in the community
- Prepares reports and maintains client records
- Develops new services and mental health community programs, and educates families and community groups about mental health issues
- Connects individuals to relevant services and activities in the community
- May assist with making appointments and accompanying individuals to appointments or therapy sessions
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a community mental health service in a converted house near a fictional regional train station. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A client tells you they caught the bus alone for the first time in months
- A referral lands well and someone finally gets the support they were waiting for
- A hard conversation ends with a person feeling listened to and less alone
Hard days
- Two people need you at the same moment and the waiting list is long
- The service you refer to is full, and you cannot fix that for your client
- Carrying other people's hard weeks home without letting them wear you down
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 441331, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.