Careers in the behavioral health field can follow many
Pathways Beacon has resources to help
anyone considering a career in the behavioral health field
and provides ways for you to explore a variety
of careers and study the differences between them
presented. Here are some of the unique aspects
of those careers expressed by multiple team
members of Nebraska's licensed Mental
Health Providers psychology is unique in the
Behavioral Health Professions in that it's often mistaken with
Psychiatry. That's the biggest one and in Psychiatry of
course, folks go through medical school. They
receive medical training just as any other MD would
and then receive a specialization in
mental health that allows them to specialize in
usually mostly medication management of
mental health issues psychologists in
contrast to that don't prescribe medications in
Most states, there are exceptions, but we
do focus more on assess.
It and diagnosis and treatment direct treatment
of patients that is similar to what licensed
Mental Health Providers do in terms
of day-to-day clinical service the difference between
psychologists. Lmhps and social workers
is that psychologists typically do are
allowed to do more of the assessment piece of things
and diagnosis that at higher levels also
psychologists often will teach at
University Systems, which isn't something
that's more commonly done by Elementary peas
and social workers.
The Unique Piece about being a PA among
the other Health Professions is that
in contrast to a counselor? Then you are
able to prescribe medication even though your counselor
and you probably will learn about medication and
things you do not have that privilege or education
to do that and that makes
it unique because again now you're taking on a very medical role
and you have to consider all the consequences of prescribing
a medication and also diagnosing them
accurately and making sure there isn't
a medical issue that's going on. So you're also ordering labs.
As well to make sure there might not be another medical issue and
then you may be Consulting more with other professionals whether
in neurology or with other psychiatrists or
with other primary care providers.
As a mental health therapist you get to work with them one-on-one on
their goals, their therapeuticals of what they want to achieve in
therapy if that's working in depression or anxiety
if that's working and processing trauma, whatever
that looks like some of the things that we do is a lot of talk therapy.
So we get to talk through it. I do not give medication. I
do not prescribe anything. So it's
more talk therapy as well as an addiction from for
a drug and alcohol therapist. It's a lot about talking about how
you're coping with that drug and alcohol and what
we can do to cope and healthier ways if that's running here
that's working out whatever that looks like. So it's a
lot of goal-oriented and a lot of me being there for
them. No matter their circumstances.
So what's really unique about being a licensed alcohol
and drug counselor versus the other professions is our
true focus is on individuals with substance use
disorders.
And it's a population that though some
individuals you may believe, you
know a lot about unless you spend the time
to work with individuals with addictions. You
really don't have a grasp of the
depth that it affects a person and their
families and their lives are real specialization is
to help a person move into recovery
from a substance use disorder and to
really build a life that there they
want to live that they're looking forward to that really
fulfills them and putting together
and repairing all the damage that's a
substance use is caused in their lives and in their family,
What is unique to counseling is that
we really do with the preventative and
the advocacy within family systems and individuals. And
so I think a lot of times people feel like that only when
I'm broken only when things are falling apart, can I
get help and so we hope to get out there earlier? We
hope to help people and educate them that you can
come for anything any of the challenges of
life and and we can be helpful in that and
what we find is that the preventative pays
dividends both financially for insurance companies and
for individuals because if we can tackle that
before it gets to crisis we can prevent some of
the divorces some of the kids being placed some of
the individuals going to prison and that's been huge.
Say licensed Mental Health.
Petitioner and a licensed addiction counselor. I have
a unique role in a unique
place in the profession. And mostly that is I can treat
both mental health and substance use together concurrently
and so folks don't
have to go to different places to get the treatment that they need
and when you look at you know how much
those two issues overlap
that's really important to be able to assess that and
you know help meet folks where they're at. I think that's pretty
unique in the field, but it's it's more and more
becoming a common thing that are we're
training our our providers to be duly licensed in
those two areas so they can help provide better
care to the people in, Nebraska.
Social workers from really the second
un or undergraduate programming you
start to understand that we are looking at the
whole person something we prescribe to all the time
is the systems theory. So when we meet somebody we're
thinking about their family system their work
life. Do they have transportation? What's their socioeconomic
level? We kind of all have
that stored in the back of our mind along with resources. So
I always kind of like tease some of the students. I've
worked with over the years when I've taught or I've been a practicum
coordinator and I say like you are going to be walking around
with a Rolodex in your mind. You're gonna
know who to call you're gonna know who to talk
to if you need to know what housing supports are available
whether somebody needs Transportation heck you're
gonna probably know the bus line at some point because that's just what
we know is social workers. So I think it's Unique that
we're able to see a person holistically when
they come in even when we're doing
Therapy, we're always thinking about the other systems that
they're interacting with and I think that is very important.
Other thing I think it is very unique about us is that
we are approved to see Medicare so that puts us in positions
of working in different types of Institutions that
sometimes another Behavioral Health provider
would not be because they see
social workers as valuable in the sense
of looking at the whole person and being, you know able to do a
lot of different levels of work with individuals because that's
what we learn from day one.
Being an lmft is unique amongst the different
Behavioral Health Professions because we are systemically
trained we treat their relationship and
not just the symptoms or the
individual. So if you came to
me because you're suffering from depression, I would
ask you about your family relationships. I
would ask you if you're involved in activities or
in your community. What is your work life? Like amongst other
things to treat you guys the system
not just that symptom. And
so that's a difference in
the training that lmfts receive when treating
a couple we're trained to treat their relationships.
So the relationship is our client. So to
say so we focus on what are the individuals doing
that are helping their relationship Thrive or
that are creating problems within the relationship and
we want that to be improved overall.
Wow maintaining how
Individuals doing as well.
Compared to other Behavioral Health Professions. I
feel like nurse practitioner is different because we
do get to combine a lot of those different roles.
So I get to provide therapy. I
get to provide medication management I get to
work as a team I get to provide some of the social work
aspect of things and I think just the
nursing theory behind things is that we
provide holistic care and that's not to say
that other other professions in this area. Do not
provide a holistic care, but I think my training behind
that really emphasized that
So a behavior analyst is someone who kind of
seeks you understand Behavior. So
we're looking at factors that might be impacting behavior. And
then using that information to develop plans or
teach new skills and behaviors to help individuals to
kind of get the most out of their daily life and
function. Well, so a typical day or week
for a behavior analyst will kind of vary pending on
their training. So often times the ones
that we kind of focus on within our program at the
University of Nebraska Omaha our intensive services,
so that would be children and early intervention
with autism that are receiving a
lot of concentrated supports to kind of
improve their functioning or speaking other skills
along those lines. The next would
be within school-based services. So we have individuals
that work as behavioral Consultants
within schools other areas within
education and behavior analysis would have to do with
Development of instructions. So for example reading instruction or
writing instruction where we're developing
programs to help kids learn as quickly and efficiently
as possible the skills that they need one other areas
within a like outpatient Behavioral
Health and within outpatient Behavioral Health
the students may work with a variety
of populations or clients from
children that have externalizing behavioral
concerns or internalizing concerns, like anxiety
and depression and those people oftentimes
do get an additional certification or
credential to practice as a mental health
practitioner within the state of Nebraska.
I think the most unique part of being a
psychiatrist is the medical knowledge
that we have many psychiatric conditions
come from medical issues.
And as a psychiatrist, I have
the ability to order labs and
Order Imaging and to rule out those medical
conditions. I also have the ability to
prescribe medications, which many
other Behavioral Health Specialists. Do
not have the ability to do.
Whereas there is two things first to me is a
still kind of like the Last Frontier the
mine, you know, I mean, we're always learning something
about the mind and no matter how much
we must learn there's always more to learn and
more to find out and more to understand. So just
being able to work with mind issues.
That in itself is incredible. The
other part is when you realize that the
most in need people,
those are needing the most need are those with
mental illness. So being able to help the
people that are in these incredible need
or precarious situation is very
satisfying because you're able to defend and advocate
for those who have the least capacity to do it.
So when you can do that, you can go home feeling and
thinking that you have done your part in
the community and in the country and in the nation,
Psychiatrists are trained medical professionals. We
complete medical school just like your other doctors and
Physicians. So we
consider patients through a medical lens. So we
look at we look at both their mental health
concerns, but also their physical concerns a lot
of there's a lot of overlap there. If you're in chronic
pain or you have infections or
dementia, those can have psychiatric symptoms
as well. So it's really important to understand
not just the brain the mind
but the whole body and that's also
especially true with when we're prescribing
medications because our medications don't
just affect the brain they affect your kidneys and
your liver and your entire body and so as well
as other medications that you're on and so really having a good
understanding of that helps us to make
sure that we are helping patients and not inadvertently causing
harm. There's a lot of steps to
Sure that a patient is well cared for and so that's why
it's so important that we work as a interprofessional team. Each
profession has a unique role in this team
and they address one or several of
those components for prescribing that's typically done
by psychiatrists psychiatric nurse practitioners and
psychiatric physician assistance. Diagnosing can
be done by psychiatrists psychologists Liam
HPS, which is licensed independent
mental health professionals can also diagnose.
And our social workers take care of the the
social needs and help with
follow-up and coordination of care. They're an invaluable
resource for all that. They're simply no way that any
psychiatrist or individuals in
this team could provide the comprehensive care
that these patients need by themselves.