Have you ever considered a career in children’s mental health but don’t think your background or qualifications fit the bill? You might be surprised how many routes there are into a CAMHS career.
Dorset CAMHS offers opportunities for people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Perhaps you’re already working in healthcare but don’t have experience in mental health, or you haven’t worked with children or young people before. Maybe you’re looking to gain clinical experience while you study, or you’re about to qualify and are thinking about your next steps.
Whatever your professional background, if you’re caring, compassionate and motivated to make a difference to young people’s lives, we’d love to hear from you. We can often provide training to help staff develop the expertise needed to work in children’s mental health – and whilst some roles in CAMHS require specialist qualifications and experience, there are many others where skills gained in other roles are just as important.
Find out more about roles in Dorset CAMHS, and the qualifications and experience required for different positions, in our guide to careers in CAMHS. Alternatively, take a look below to see how you could use your skills at CAMHS.
No experience in mental health?
If you’re a qualified nurse, occupational therapist, social worker or are working in another core profession, and you have some experience of working with children, you could transfer your skills to a role with CAMHS – and we’ll offer specialist training if it’s needed. Our CAMHS practitioners come from a variety of backgrounds including children’s nursing and social work. Alternatively, if you aren’t currently working in a registered healthcare profession, but would like to gain experience in a mental health setting, a support worker role might be for you.
Read about CAMHS clinical service manager Kelly who began her career as a children’s nurse before moving into CAMHS.
No experience in children's services?
If you haven’t worked with children or young people before, don’t let that put you off a career at CAMHS. If you have a background in care and support, and you’re compassionate, friendly and motivated, we would love to hear from you. In many cases, we can offer training to support you in developing the skills needed to work with children and young people.
Many of our CAMHS practitioners and mental health nurses started their careers in adult mental health, but moved into roles with CAMHS.
Read about community mental health nurse Rebecca who began her career in mental health forensics before moving to CAMHS.
No clinical experience?
If you’re caring, compassionate and motivated to make a difference to young people’s lives, you could join us as a mental health support worker or in one of our many admin roles – we’d love to have you on-board!
Read about mental health support worker Ellie who is working at CAMHS whilst studying for her psychology degree.
Soon to qualify or newly qualified?
If you’re about to qualify or have recently qualified as a psychologist, mental health nurse, occupational therapist or another core healthcare profession, Dorset CAMHS could offer you your first professional role, and an opportunity to thrive in the career you have trained for.
We have roles for registered mental health nurses, psychologists, CAMHS practitioners and more, and offer outstanding learning and development opportunities thanks to our unique clinical staff development programme.
Psychology degree but no post-graduate qualification?
You could join CAMHS as an assistant psychologist or apply for one of our training posts such as a trainee wellbeing practitioner. Our training posts can provide access to professional qualifications in specialist psychological therapies and support for academic study through one of our affiliated universities.
Hear more from Anna and Charlotte, who started at Dorset CAMHS as trainee wellbeing practitioners.