Hi,
I think I have an idea of what I’d like to do as a career, but I’m not sure what major and path of study I need to follow in college.
I would like to do something with mental health, specifically policy reform to improve mental health hospitals, prison systems, and public school systems. I’ve applied to several liberal arts schools as well as UNC Chapel Hill and George Washington, so I think I’ll have a variety of options class-wise.
Would this fall under psychology, public policy, government, etc.? Should I plan for law school or obtaining a psychiatric degree in the future?
All advice is appreciated, thank you!
Any, all of the above.
Careers are rarely so strict/linear that you can get to the same one taking one path. Policy change in mental health comes from a lot of different directions - clinical and counseling psychologists, school psychologists (in the case of school systems, psychiatrists, psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners, and other mental health counselors for sure; researchers in the field of mental health (who may have a PhD in psychology or another closely related social scientist); school administrators and leaders, in the case of schools; people who are trained in public policy, like lobbyists or think tank analysts…it really depends; people from ALL of those backgrounds are involved in shaping mental health policy all the way from the standards that are used to license and accredit individual care providers and programs that train them, to laws that govern public support of mental health care, to approving drugs for mental illness, and so many other issues. Usually the practitioners have several years of experience doing direct patient care first and come into it later, whereas the analysts and lobbyist have a more direct route but have less prior expertise to lean on.
If you are interested in mental health, it’s probably a good idea for you to at least minor in psychology so you understand the human mind, thought, behavior, brain and how it is affected by illness and other related issues. Since you know that you’re interested in policy, taking some classes in public policy (or majoring or minoring, if you so wish) is also a good idea. Other possible majors are sociology, anthropology, political science, even economics if you are interested in the intersection of economic policy and mental health issues.
If you don’t want a clinical degree (MD, PsyD, PhD, MS - something that allows you to treat people with mental illnesses), you may be interested in an MPH in health policy and administration or an MPA at a program that has a concentration in health, like NYU Wagner. Some schools - like Columbia - let you get a joint MPA/MPH in three years. There are also MPP programs, and some of them have a health concentration/focus as well. Of course, graduate school is way down the line for you, but just something to consider.
I’m just going to echo what @juillet said. Use your time in your first couple years to take classes to try to narrow down your interests. One thing to consider when thinking about Psychiatry vs Public Policy is do you want to spend your time trying to make a huge impact on one person at a time? Or spend time trying to make a small, positive impact on the world?
I’m sorry for such a late response but thank you so much @juillet and @philbegas for your input!! Both of your advice is really helpful and cleared up a lot of questions I had about pursuing a degree in mental health/social service work. I still haven’t decided where I’m going to college, but I’m looking into several of these majors at each school and the health policy program mentioned. Thanks again I really appreciate it!