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Center for Mental Health Introduces High School Students to Career Opportunities

By Rachel Ousley

Story Created: Feb 6, 2012 at 7:23 PM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 6, 2012 at 7:23 PM MDT

Mental health can sometimes seem like an elusive career path since doctor patient confidentiality often prevents normal job shadowing. An annual career session hosted by the Center for Mental Health helps dispel some of the mystery.

Great Falls High Junior, Melisa Morgan, explains she came to today’s career session at the Center for Mental Health because “there’s really no opportunity to job shadow a psychologist, so the first opportunity I got I just jumped at it”. Privacy issues may make it difficult to get real hands on experience in the mental health field, but it's vital to help students decide if this is a path for them. Morgan says, “you can learn about it all you want, but until you’re in that situation you’re not going to know what to do”.

The Center for Mental Health knows children are the future and they are the ones to make the next discoveries. CEO of the Center for Mental Health, Sydney Blair, explains they have been doing this event for about five years to “plant a seed. We want to recruit people into the field”.

They offer this career session introducing students into the variety of careers in psychology at the high school level because developmentally students are beginning to look for ways to impact their community. Blair explains, “there’s such a variety of ways that you can impact those struggling with mental health and there’s a variety of different experience levels and degrees that can be useful in this field”.

Students can get involved now through volunteering. There are also careers that only require a high school diploma or GED. Students were impressed to learn that a state with one of the smallest populations is a leader in psychology. Krista Anderson, a sophomore at CMR, explains, “we're in the top five states for in school therapy and I thought that was really interesting to know”.

While this instilled a sense of pride, many students were intrigued by this session to learn more on how they can make a difference. Anderson says she believes the mental health profession has come a long way, “but I definitely think that we still have some work to do with the treatments”.

Anderson dreams of a career in the medical field because she knows she wants to help people. After this session, she is interested in learning more about opportunities in psychology. She says, “hearing them talk about all the schooling and how many different careers you can have was inspiring to me because you have job security”.

Morgan also found some insight into her future aspirations when she became inspired after hearing a school therapist describe how he has the opportunity to witness students grow and be a part of their transformation. She says she is now seriously considering becoming a school therapist.

Great Falls School District does offer a job shadowing opportunity with school counselors. This is a registered program. Interested students should speak to their counselors for more information on how to sign up.

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Anonymous said on Tuesday, Feb 7 at 4:38 PM

great story - well done

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