Hospital staff
What is a psychiatrist? Are they the same as psychologists?
A psychiatrist is a medically qualified doctor, with a special interest and further training in (psychiatry) dealing with emotional and behavioural disorders and mental illnesses.
They are generally based in hospitals and will look after outpatients from the community as well as hospital inpatients. The most senior grade is a consultant, who will be responsible for a team of doctors, which may include Senior Registrars, Registrars, and Senior House Officers (known as SHOs), Clinical Assistants or Hospital Practitioners (who may be doctors with a special interest in psychiatry working part time in hospital), and Staff Grade doctors.
University Departments of Mental Health use a different naming system, with Professors and Senior Lecturers at the top. Psychiatrists will have a basic medical degree, plus further qualifications such as MRC Psych (Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists). They may have a variety of other letters after their names as well – for example, if they have worked in aresearch post or have taken further qualifications in another branch of medicine.
Psychology is the study of behaviour, and covers memory, thought, aptitude, intelligence, learning, personality, perception, and emotion. Clinical psychologists work in many hospital-and community-based teams, and will take part in a variety of ‘talking treatments’, such as psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. They may specialise in the assessment of people’s mental ability in many situations, including dementia or following head injury. They take a degree in psychology at university, and then go on to do postgraduate training in clinical psychology, the application of the science of psychology to mental illness.
