What are your career goals?

[doctormelody]

8 minutes ago, londonrain9 said:

I have so many options! I want to go into either community, health/medical, or policy social work. I want to work with the disability community and advocate for their rights to access health information, but there are so many ways I can go about that, so I'm hoping my grad school experience will help narrow it down.

To hopefully answer your question-- I had an internship last summer at an outpatient therapy clinic where I worked under an LMHC, LMSW and a psychologist. I saw few differences in treatment methods, but obviously the psychologist had "more power" in diagnosing and prescribing meds. In NY, you don't NEED a LCSW to practice because it isn't required, but you need to check your state's requirements.

Psych PhD's can prescribe meds? That's a new one for me, I thought you had to be a medical doctor or a nurse practitioner to do that. But yeah I don't really care about being able to diagnose or prescribe meds, so that's a non-issue for me.

Your career path sounds awesome and so important! The way disabled people get treated in this country is abhorrent, so kudos to you for wanting to take that on and improve the system.

[doctormelody]

38 minutes ago, lunary said:

I'd really like to play a role in macro-level social work. I'm interested in research and policy, particularly as it pertains to childhood trauma. I think that macro social work is often underappreciated, and there's definitely a need for social workers who are willing to conduct the research that informs our practice.

Now, as far as getting there, I have quite a long path ahead of me. ?

I think this is great. We all have a long path in front of us in different ways, so I wouldn't stress about that. Do you eventually want to get your PhD?

Edited February 7, 2019 by doctormelody

[Tomlinson87]

1 hour ago, doctormelody said:

Psych PhD's can prescribe meds? That's a new one for me, I thought you had to be a medical doctor or a nurse practitioner to do that. But yeah I don't really care about being able to diagnose or prescribe meds, so that's a non-issue for me.

Your career path sounds awesome and so important! The way disabled people get treated in this country is abhorrent, so kudos to you for wanting to take that on and improve the system.

Few states have allowed clinical psychologists to administer drugs. Usually psychologist refer a patient to a psychiatrist for medications. 

[doctormelody]

2 hours ago, Tomlinson87 said:

Few states have allowed clinical psychologists to administer drugs. Usually psychologist refer a patient to a psychiatrist for medications. 

That's what I thought which is why I was surprised to hear that! I wonder if it's different in NY.