Psychiatrist
What the work is
Diagnoses, assesses, treats and prevents mental, emotional and behavioural conditions.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Conducts psychiatric assessments and diagnoses mental, emotional and behavioural conditions
- Prescribes and monitors medication, and develops treatment plans for patients, including therapies and rehabilitation programs
- Collaborates with other Health Professionals to provide comprehensive patient care
- Determines the need for involuntary treatment, and handles emergency crisis intervention and hospital admissions
- Assists in managing patients in legal and forensic settings by providing expert opinion to the community, government and courts
- May provide psychotherapy and counselling to individuals or in group sessions
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a public community mental health clinic, with sessions in a hospital liaison service. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A patient who has been unwell for a long time says they feel like themselves again
- A family finally understands what their relative is going through
- A treatment plan you made together is working, and the patient says so
Hard days
- A person who has stopped treatment because they feel it is not worth it
- A family member who demands to know things you are not able to share
- Waiting lists that are longer than any clinician wants
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 264431, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.