Activities	Care for mentally impaired or emotionally disturbed people, following physician instructions and hospital procedures. Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report to medical staff.
Outlook	Slower-than-average job growth
Median Income	$29,200 per year in 2008
Work Context & Conditions	Psychiatric technicians work indoors in an environmentally controlled area where they assist patients.
Minimum Education Requirements	Technical Program General High School Program
Skills	Social Perceptiveness, Learning Strategies, Monitoring, Critical Thinking, Instructing, Active Listening, Writing, Service Orientation, Reading Comprehension, Speaking
Abilities	Oral Expression, Speech Recognition, Problem Sensitivity, Oral Comprehension

Job Category		Healthcare Practitioners & Technical
Job Description		According to the Florida Area Health Education Centers: "Psychiatric technicians, often called mental health technicians, have more formal training than aides. Technicians participate in both the planning and implementing of individual patient treatment plans. They may be responsible for admitting and interviewing patients, record keeping, assisting in administration of medication, and conducting therapy sessions. Psychiatric technicians help patients with their personal hygiene, such as bathing and keeping beds, clothing, and living areas clean and administer oral medications and hypodermic injections, following physician's prescriptions and hospital procedures. They take and record measures of patients' general physical condition, such as pulse, temperature, and respiration, to provide daily information and observe patients to detect behavior patterns and report observations to medical staff. They also issue medications from dispensary and maintains records in accordance with specified procedures. These technicians lead prescribed individual or group therapy sessions as part of specific therapeutic procedures. and intervene to restrain violent or potentially violent or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required. They also contact patients' relatives by telephone to arrange family conferences and complete initial admittance forms for new patients. There are a number of opportunities for specialization in a particular aspect of mental health care. The psychiatric technician/aide may specialize in helping mentally disturbed children. Others may work in drug and alcohol abuse or crisis intervention. Another area of specialization is working in community mental health. These technicians may be primarily concerned with parental effectiveness, the elderly, or problems dealing with interpersonal relationships. With additional training, they may work with mentally retarded people."
Working Conditions		According to the Florida Area Health Education Centers: "Psychiatric technicians/aides work in a wide variety of settings including mental hospitals, community general hospitals, community mental health centers, psychiatric clinics, schools for mentally retarded, social service agencies, geriatric nursing homes, child or adolescent centers, and halfway houses. They generally work a 40-hour week. Because patients need care 24 hours a day, scheduled work hours may include nights, weekends, and holidays. They will spend most of their time on their feet. They are sometimes confronted with violent patients who must be restrained. This may be emotionally draining, but they may also gain satisfaction from assisting those in need."
Salary Range		Median annual income of psychiatric technicians was $29,200 in 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $23,400 and $338,500. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $20,300 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $49,800.

Education Required		According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, psychiatric technicians qualify for their position with a postsecondary vocational award. According to the Florida Area Health Education Centers: "High school courses that would be helpful for this occupation include psychology, social science, hygiene, art, and music. Post secondary education is needed to work as a technician and can be obtained in vocational technical centers and community colleges. The program includes courses in mental health/illness theory, communication skills, crisis intervention, psychotropic medications, substance abuse, and employment skills. The training programs may be one year or more."
Recommended High School Courses		Clerical, English, Health
Postsecondary Instructional Programs		Education and Training, English Language, Psychology, Public Safety and Security, Therapy and Counseling, Customer and Personal Service, Medicine and Dentistry
Certification and Licensing

Interest Area		Social Involves working and communicating with, helping, and teaching people.
Work Values		Social Service Do things for other people. Supervision, Human Relations Supervisors back up their workers with management. Security Have steady employment. Co-workers Have co-workers who are easy to get along with.
Skills		Social Perceptiveness Be aware of others' reactions and understand why they react the way they do. Learning Strategies Use multiple approaches when learning or teaching new things. Monitoring Assess how well someone is doing when learning or doing something. Critical Thinking Use logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Instructing Teach others how to do something. Active Listening Listen to what other people are saying and ask questions as appropriate. Writing Communicate effectively with others in writing as indicated by the needs of the audience. Service Orientation Actively look for ways to help people. Reading Comprehension Understand written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents. Speaking Talk to others to effectively convey information.
Abilities		Oral Expression Able to convey information and ideas through speech in ways that others will understand. Speech Recognition Identify and understand the speech of another person Problem Sensitivity Able to tell when something is wrong or likely to go wrong. This doesn't involve solving the problem, just recognizing that there is a problem. Oral Comprehension Able to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Related Jobs		Social Worker, Child, Family, and School, Therapist, Physical, Therapist, Recreational, Aide, Psychiatric
Job Outlook		According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 57,1000 psychiatric technicians; it is expected that there will be an additional 19,000 psychiatric technicians by 2018.
More Information
References		The Florida Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) on the Internet at http://www.flahec.org/hlthcareers/psychtec.htm Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition, Psychiatric Technicans, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco20052.htm#29-2053 O*NET OnLine, on the Internet at http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/29-2053.00