Psychology and Psychiatric Rehab questions?

[rosanao]

Good Morning all,
I am writing on here due to my confusion between what to pursue in college. I am currently a freshman with an undeclared major. I stopped going to school for the last two semesters due to financial situations but I have recently decided to get back into school and get my career path started. I have always been interested in psychology but I have been looking more into psychiatry due to the fact that I can be allowed to prescribe medicine once I get my phd. My concern is that I am almost 21 and I understand that I need to be in school for a long period of time but I had a few questions concerning a certain major provided by my school. The major is called Psychology and Psychiatric Rehabilitation. It is a dual major. Has anyone heard of this and what are possible caeer options for me? I would love to work with children, yes I have read that working with children in psychiatry can be difficult but I have my personal reasons onto why I would love to pursue this. I also know that it seems like I do not know the difference between psychology and psychiatry, but I am comparing them here due to the fact that my University does not provide a major for psychiatry. I mainly want to do my 4 years first due to the fact that I am not sure if I will be accepted to medical school in the future. Financial wise and grade wise. My main concer, is, does the major Psychology and Psychiatric Rehabilitation seem like one where I can work with children and is it of any use in the psychiatric department? This is a spread sheet http://www.kean.edu/~psych/doc/2011 PSYCHIATRIC REHABILITATION.pdf of the college courses I will need to take once I enroll in this field. What are your suggestions? Are the courses useful? I am very new to this and I would love answers from anyone in psychiatry or psychology. Please and Thank you for your time, it is very appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

A quick point of clarification: psychiatrists are physicians, and thus obtain MDs, not PhDs. There aren't any undergrad majors in psychiatry specifically because many schools don't have pre-med majors (although yours might). Thus, if psychiatry is the way you want to go, you'll just need to get your pre-med pre-reqs out of the way; whether or not you actually major in "pre-med" or something else won't matter.

In all honesty, an undergrad degree in anything psychology-related isn't really going to change your career prospects much--regardless of the degree type, your options will generally be to work in case management-type jobs (e.g., casework for DFACS), in supportive roles in various inpatient-type facilities, as a research assistant, and perhaps in a few other capacities that I can't think of currently. However, your ability to directly provide clinical services (e.g., psychotherapy) will be minimal to none regardless of your undergrad degree, as being able to do so is generally contingent on obtaining some type of graduate degree.

Also, just a personal note--21 isn't really all that old in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to many other folks who go the grad school route. If you're really worried about it, you can try to accelerate your progress and finish in 3 years, although that has the potential to burn you out, especially if you go straight into an intensive grad program immediately afterward. But yes, both a PhD in clinical/counseling/school psych and an MD with a residency in psychiatry are going to take the better part of a decade to complete, and both thus represent significant life investments.

 

[rosanao]

A quick point of clarification: psychiatrists are physicians, and thus obtain MDs, not PhDs. There aren't any undergrad majors in psychiatry specifically because many schools don't have pre-med majors (although yours might). Thus, if psychiatry is the way you want to go, you'll just need to get your pre-med pre-reqs out of the way; whether or not you actually major in "pre-med" or something else won't matter.

In all honesty, an undergrad degree in anything psychology-related isn't really going to change your career prospects much--regardless of the degree type, your options will generally be to work in case management-type jobs (e.g., casework for DFACS), in supportive roles in various inpatient-type facilities, as a research assistant, and perhaps in a few other capacities that I can't think of currently. However, your ability to directly provide clinical services (e.g., psychotherapy) will be minimal to none regardless of your undergrad degree, as being able to do so is generally contingent on obtaining some type of graduate degree.

Also, just a personal note--21 isn't really all that old in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to many other folks who go the grad school route. If you're really worried about it, you can try to accelerate your progress and finish in 3 years, although that has the potential to burn you out, especially if you go straight into an intensive grad program immediately afterward. But yes, both a PhD in clinical/counseling/school psych and an MD with a psychiatry in residency are going to take the better part of a decade to complete, and both thus represent significant life investments.

Thank you so much for your quick response. I see that you said I mainly can do case management-type jobs. I want to be more in the clinical field with this as well as helping the children. I would need to definitely get my MD, and I apologize for my confusion between Md and PhD. Thank you for the correction. What is your job description if you dont mind me asking, since I see that you are in pyschology?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Background Information About Psychology Grad Education: http://psychologygradschool.weebly.com/

Typical Day: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/describe-your-typical-week-in-practice.1029911/

 

[docma]

You may want to learn more about the whole field of Rehabiliation Psychology as well. Boston University has been a leader in the field and has MA and PhD programs. Learning more about the general field of rehab will inform you about a range of job options with both children and adults and it is likely to be an area of growing job opportunities.