Advice - Completed Fdsc, want to change completely to mental health?

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2002
Posts
10,165
Location
Minehead
Guys,

I thought I'd ask here first to see if any of you knew -

I've just completed a Fdsc in computer networking, and whilst I intended to persue the third year to make it a honours I've now decided I want to persue a career in Mental Health.

I realise its a pretty mighty balls up, but mental health is something that I've always been interested in and as such I don't believe I could work in anything more rewarding than that.

My concern here is - Have I really done myself over now - I believe you can't get funding for a same level qualification and as such the degree down here is a Foundation degree with a third year top up. If this is the case will I have to find the money myself for the first two years of study?

Any help much appreciated.

Mike
 
What role do you want to perform let me know that and maybe others and myself can help you. By this I mean do you want to become a HCA, nurse, doctor, psychologist, therapist etc.
 
After my mother fostering children for some time I'm particularly interested in child psychology or psychology // mental health of younger people.

My sister qualified two years ago as a mental health nurse and this kind of work fascinates me (maybe the wrong way to put it, but I am very interested in the workings of the mind)

Thanks for your reply.

I am interested in general healthcare but I believe healthcare advisors to be dominated by females? Should this matter if so?
 
Last edited:
The new loans structure and low salaries in his chosen field means he will likely end up paying back less, certainly less per month, under the higher fees than he would now.
 
Ok if you are looking at getting into CAHMS then there are two paths open to you as a nurse:

1) RN (Mental Health)
2) RN (Child)

Although government guidance says that all children should be cared for by paediatric trained staff this is not really happening in CAMHS and in the main staff are mental health branch trained (looking after adults) but due to a traditionally strong mental health lobby get away with it. In my opinion if you want to do the job well then go down the paeds route if you want to fit in better and not restrict your job opportunities go down the mental health route just don't expect to get any paediatric exposure during your training. Likewise though in paeds training do not expect to get specific CAMHS exposure other than as a result of some more obvious physical condition eg behavioural difficulties in a child who has say epilepsy.

Things to consider - outside of nursing the jobs are rare and CAHMS units in the NHS are few and far between although there are private Priory clinics around. Again the preference is for RN (Mental Health) nurses over RN (Child). Due to the paediatric focus of the RN (Child) course you will not do sufficient hours in your training to work abroad in the states or Canada but can in say NZ and Oz. If that is a matter of concern to you. However, if you do the RN (Child) route you would at least come out skilled to look after a sick child so you will be a better rounded practitioner.

My recommendation would be to examine what the role is like from the view as a Health Care Assistant - then use that as a platform for them to fund you for nursing training. This will most likely require a change of location for you. The you will know can you handle the following and it does really bear thinking about: children committing suicide, children who are being abused of which there is no evidence and you have no power to prevent them going back into that situation, physically holding a child, being assaulted by a child, being accused of a physical act by a child etc along with all the other things you may well expect. Forget child psychology it is oversubscribed by overqualified people. And Mental Health and A=E and ITU you find a lot of blokes. Paeds less so.

More specific questions fire away - I aint doing much only gaming :)
 
Last edited:
I don't understand all of your reply but thank you for taking the time to type that out :)

I was originally going to Plymouth University to do a degree but situations and family meant I stayed down here. Now due to an upcoming change again I can't travel to complete the third year up there.

I've realised now, or rather I did half way through my second year that I should have persued health care. My problem now is with funding and I'm wondering whether I've made this decision far far too late.

I'm just not too sure where to start really and thats half the problem :)
 
-Mike- said:
I don't understand all of your reply but thank you for taking the time to type that out :)

I was originally going to Plymouth University to do a degree but situations and family meant I stayed down here. Now due to an upcoming change again I can't travel to complete the third year up there.

I've realised now, or rather I did half way through my second year that I should have persued health care. My problem now is with funding and I'm wondering whether I've made this decision far far too late.

I'm just not too sure where to start really and thats half the problem :)
Click to expand...

Once you know what direction you want to go in then you can source various ways of funding but you really need to know what you want to do before looking for ways of financing it.
 
Moses said:
I disagree, I think working out if broad options (undergrad/postgrad) are affordable is a good starting point.
Click to expand...

Well as my wife runs one of the biggest CAMHS wards in the country I'll beg to differ. As I stated in my post above if he wanted to go into it from a nursing point of view he doesn't have to worry as he can get a NHS trust to pay the whole lot for him. There is no point in exploring finance when it is clear he needs to think what area he wants to work in and if it really is for him before making such a change.
 
Moses said:
Whereas if he just wants to do social work, what I said's entirely relevant.
Click to expand...

The emphasis there being on the IF which is why he needs to think what he wants to do! If he want to do social work the one path is open to him, if he wants to do medicine then another etc he needs to decide which path he wants to go down which is kind of my point ...
 
Where are you studying? I'd be very surprised if they don't have a career's advisory service - go and see them.
 
Mr Jack said:
Where are you studying? I'd be very surprised if they don't have a career's advisory service - go and see them.
Click to expand...

I've just done a FdSc in Computer networking, but having realised the course pretty much destroyed one of my hobbies - I don't want to mix work with pleasure.

Mental health or specifically that in children has interested me since seeing the effects or after effects of certain events on temporary foster children. I believe this field of work would/could be rewarding and as such understanding the way minds work today has always interested me.

Maustin - You seem to know a lot about this stuff. My sister had her degree part funded by the nhs and the rest from SLC as far as I'm aware. I have CRB bits and pieces already done but presumably these would need doing again.

Thanks for all the help so far :)
 
-Mike- said:
Re the careers advice service : The uni is shut now and can't get hold of anyone there either!
Click to expand...

A thought: is there anywhere that does what you want to do near you? I'd think so. Could you contact them and see if you could shadow someone for a week to get a better idea what they do, and some advice about how to get into it? Normally organisations are surprisingly open to such things, but - obviously - mental health is a bit of a special case.
 
I don't think that mental health would allow me to shadow someone ;) I'll have to wait until september to contact the university I was studying at. They do courses in health care, mental health care and many others.
 
Ive nothing to add to this thats useful, but I wish to say respect..

Its an amazing thing for someone to have a big change of heart in life like this, and decide to work to help others in need.

:)
 
Dr. Pain said:
Ive nothing to add to this thats useful, but I wish to say respect..

Its an amazing thing for someone to have a big change of heart in life like this, and decide to work to help others in need.

:)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. I just realised - why am I wasting my time with hardware that bores me unless its part of a hobby. I watched the work my mother did with the three children she had.... boy oh boy were they messed up and given the circumstances surrounding them its no wonder.

Seeing people change and being helped to understand what is normal and right is quite rewarding and she did an amazing job with the help of others. So much so that even after not fostering for over a year they still have her on their books and offer her new placements on a monthly basis.

Obviously some cases are just mental illness, but others are due to their surroundings and events that have happened to them. The way the brain reacts and responds to these things and the way in which we as people can try to change the thought patterns and actions fascinates me and is something I want to be a part of.
 
-Mike- said:
Maustin - You seem to know a lot about this stuff. My sister had her degree part funded by the nhs and the rest from SLC as far as I'm aware. I have CRB bits and pieces already done but presumably these would need doing again.

Thanks for all the help so far :)
Click to expand...

If you want to know anything else then shout - I can ask the wife on everything I am unsure of. You would need a Criminal Records check prior to contact if you did develop an opportunity for shadowing although I doubt you would get an opportunity to do this at an inpatient centre as they tend to work as "therapeutic communities" which would be imbalanced by this. Have a read up and see what you want to do - as I am sure you have gathered from my posts and reading most of the available jobs will be either as a Health Care Assistant or for you more likely Nurse. Nursing has a professional component to the qualification along with the academic and hence why you would not be able to shortcut across like you can with other degrees because you have to fulfil a certain number of practical based hours to meet the professional criteria. You would most likely have to have inpatient experience to get a community based job in these roles. Have you thought of other aspects as mentioned eg social work, police child protection, youth offending etc? Really is worth thinking what you want to do as say for example a great deal of inpatient work at some units can be purely eating disorders where as others specialise more in autism, asperger', ADHD, pervasive refusal etc. What you specifically want to do will not only guide what career role you want to do but if you do go down the nursing route which training branch you want to go down (as highlighted in my earlier post) - RN (Child) or RN (Mental Health).

Finishing your current degree though would not hold you back at all though and may be wiser and would also give you the opportunity to then open up a shortened medical training course but trust me on this one - they are very very very hard work.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom