Today’s guest blog about how to find appropriate mental health support is offered as a public service for any of my readers who do not find this the happy, happiest time of the year. For some, the holidays are more of an emotional obstacle course that triggers deep feelings of loss and loneliness. Thank you Arlene Westcott for your informative article about the vital, but sometimes confusing, field of mental health professionals. If you need help, find help. My google search for “mental health help/Columbus/OH provided numerous options in seconds.
Find Appropriate Mental Health Support When Needed
By Arlene Westcott
Mental Health has been the hot topic of 2022 as the aftermaths of COVID-19 increased mental health concerns throughout the global population. Previously, mental health was confused with sanity, and this led to an ever-growing increase in suicides as people found it easier to end their life rather than consult a mental health advisory.
Thanks to social media, awareness about the importance of mental health has been raised among ordinary people, who started noticing symptoms and sought help. There is no need to suffer alone or in silence. However, it remains a mystery to determine which mental health support might best suit your situation.
Where to start?
If you are in desperate need of mental health support, you don’t need to also deal with a long wait, resulting in no vital information at the end of the wait. You do not have to go through this pain anymore since now many healthcare websites are available that provide the best mental health care available in your area. There you can book appointments to eliminate unnecessary waiting time.
Visiting a mental health clinical setting for a walk-in appointment is not advisable, as psychologists or psychiatrists typically already have packed schedules for each day. There is only a rare chance an existing appointment might be canceled, making a time available for you.
How to Find the Right Mental Health Support?
To find the right mental health support you must choose the specific mental health provider that deals with symptoms similar to yours. This is not easy to do so without complete knowledge of mental health specialists. You should understand the work of various mental health specialists.
Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist
The primary division under the umbrella of mental health support is psychiatry and psychology. Psychiatrists are MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) doctors specializing in psychiatry, while psychologists complete a Master’s degree in clinical psychology or other sub-divisions to be discussed later. Psychiatrists are medical doctors, while psychologists are only doctors when they earn a Ph.D. degree.
Psychiatrists mainly prescribe medicines that control emotion-related hormones, while psychologists provide psychotherapy (therapy to treat psychological disorders). A person experiencing severe psychological conditions might consult a psychiatrist who would prescribe a cycle of pills to regulate the hormone levels in order for a psychologist to start their work. If a person with seven symptoms comes to a psychologist for help, the psychologist would likely send the person to a psychiatrist because effective psychotherapy is only be possible once the body is ready to receive it.
You will find psychiatrists, and some psychologists, in clinical settings. Psychiatrists and psychologists often work together in hospitals to provide better patient treatment. Since the pandemic psychologists now also often provide online therapies.
Types of Psychologists
Psychology is a vast field with many different types available. Nowadays, you may find job applications for multiple types of psychologists in high-profile firms on job-search websites such as BC jobs. These are the most common types you need to know about:
Clinical Psychologist
An all-rounder type of psychology, clinical psychologists deal with severe mental disorders and provide psychotherapy. They are commonly found in clinical settings working hand in hand with psychiatrists, where they can deal with minor psychological issues.
Developmental Psychologist
These psychologists analyze an individual’s transformation in mental capabilities and mental health from birth through childhood. Parents who want to track their children’s changing moods and help their children maintain healthy minds may refer consult a developmental psychologist.
Health Psychologist
These psychologists look for the relationship between psychological factors and physical disease. For example, health psychologists assess how long-term stress can affect physical health. They identify methods to promote behavior that brings about good health.
Counseling Psychologist
These psychologists typically work with high school or university students. Counseling psychology focuses primarily on educational, social, and career adjustment problems. Almost every college has a center staffed with counseling psychologists where students can get advice on the kinds of jobs that might best suit them, effective studying methods, and strategies for resolving everyday difficulties, such as problems with peers or concerns about a specific professor’s grading practices or discriminatory behavior. Prominent business organizations often employ counseling psychologists to help employees with work-related issues.
Counseling psychology resembles clinical psychology in that both involve activities such as interviewing, testing, and providing therapy. Counseling psychologists focus on assisting people who struggle with everyday moderate problems, specializing in family, marital, or career counseling.
Social Psychologist
These are the psychologists who study how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others. Social psychologists concentrate on such diverse topics as human aggression, liking and loving, persuasion, and conformity.
Personality Psychologist
These focus on the consistency in people’s behavior over time and the traits that differentiate one person from another.
Cross-cultural Psychologist
These examine the similarities and differences in psychological functioning within and across various cultures and ethnic groups. If you plan to open a branch of your business in another ethnicity, you may need cross-cultural psychologists to help you and your team perform better.
Experimental Psychologist
They are the psychologists who study the processes of sensing, grasping, learning, and thinking about the world.
Cognitive Psychologist
These focus on higher mental processes, including thinking, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, judging, decision-making, and language. For example, a cognitive psychologist might be interested in what the survivors of a plane crash remembered about their experience.
School/Educational Psychologist
These school psychologists work with children to assess learning and emotional problems. School psychologists promote children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development in schools. They test, counsel children having difficulties in school, and work with parents and teachers to help solve a child’s school-related problems.
Industrial/ Organizational Psychologist
These are concerned with selecting people most suitable for particular jobs or designing structures that facilitate collaboration and teamwork. They are also work to improve staff morale and attitudes, increase job satisfaction and productivity, examine organizational structures and procedures, and make recommendations for improvements.
Forensic Psychologist
Forensic psychologists apply psychological principles to issues arising in the legal system, such as child custody decisions, hearings on competency to stand trial, violence risk assessments, involuntary commitment proceedings, and so forth.
Applied psychologist
These come from a vast field of study which aims to apply psychological concepts, theories, and research work. It is the use of psychological methods and findings of scientific psychology to solve practical problems of human and animal behavior. Some areas of applied psychology include clinical, counseling, I/O, forensic psychology, etc.
Abnormal psychologist
These study abnormal behavior and psychopathology. This specialty area is focused on researching and treating various mental disorders and is linked to psychotherapy and clinical psychology.
Sport Psychologist
Sport psychologists study the psychological aspects of sports performance, including motivation and performance anxiety, and the effects of sports on mental and emotional well-being. They might also research similar topics related to physical exercise, considering, for example, the interactions between mental and physical performance under demanding conditions, such as firefighting, military operations, artistic performance, and surgery.
Evolutionary Psychologist
This sub-disciple is concerned with finding out how our behavior is impacted by the genes we inherit from our ancestors. Anyone who wants to check for any chance of mental disorder among their future generations may want to consult these psychologists.
Clinical Neuropsychologist
Clinical neuropsychologists are involved in assessing and treating people who suffer from central nervous system dysfunctions due to head trauma, dementia, stroke, seizure disorders, and so forth.
Behavioral Genetics Psychologists
These people focus on the biological mechanisms, such as genes and chromosomes, that enable inherited behavior to unfold. Behavioral genetics seeks to understand how we might inherit certain behavioral traits and how the environment influences whether we display such characteristics.
If you found this helpful, share it with a friend. You can sign up for free weekly articles and/or a monthly newsletter at my HowWiseThen website. If you struggle with mental health, I recommend you read Finding Myself Again, a book by my friend Pastor Brad Otto, about his struggles to overcome his own mental health challenges. No one should live with guilt, unmitigated stress, remorse, loneliness, or remorse. They make lousy travel companions.
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