Thread by @garwboy

I don't know who needs to know this, but as A-level results are coming up and people will be making decisions and asked advice about careers, here it is

Psychiatrists and Psychologists are different things

To be a Psychiatrist, you need a degree in medicine, not psychology

/1

You may think this is a painfully obvious thing to tweet. Perhaps it comes across as horribly patronising. Sorry if it seems so, but I promise you, countless people are unaware of it

Psychiatrists and psychologists are different things with different qualifications

/2

And I don't mean teens still in school. It's perfectly acceptable for them to not realise that psychiatry and psychology are separate disciplines.

But many adults, often highly educated ones, are also unaware of the (very important) distinction. And that's not great

/3

Remember, I spent nearly 8 years teaching and administering a postgraduate psychiatry programme. I was the first person applicants would speak to

You know how many times I had to explain that psychiatry and psychology are different? I lost count. Over 200 though, easily

/4

And these were applicants to a *postgraduate* programme. THEY'D ALREADY DONE A WHOLE DEGREE! Many times, this degree was in psychology. And many people had done a degree in psychology because they wanted to be a psychiatrist. I was the first person to tell them they couldn't.

/5

So, basically, around uni application time every year for almost a decade, part of my job involved shattering the dreams of earnest, well-meaning strangers, and telling them they'd wasted years of their life and many thousands of pounds.

So that was fun

/6

Because it seems there are countless people out there who assume that a psychology degree will let you become a psychiatrist

It won't. It's like thinking a history degree makes you an archaeologist. There's overlap sure, but it's a v different skill set

/7

And apparently the assumption that psychology and psychiatry are the same is very common, and never acknowledged as wrong. Hence, people do whole degrees in the former, assuming it means they can do the latter. But it won't.

/8

Aside: it doesn't happen the other way around. As far as I know, there aren't any dedicated psychiatry undergraduate degrees, that people could do inadvertently in the hope of being a psychologist.

/9

Personally, I blame film and TV. This idea that psychiatrists are just people in armchairs who listen to you as you lay on a couch and share your problems is an annoying fiction, but a deeply ingrained one. Nothing about it suggests '7 years of medical school'.

/10

You may argue that psychologists SHOULD be allowed to treat patients, and that a medical degree shouldn't be necessary

Sure, it's a valid debate to have. Doesn't change the rules as they currently stand, though.

/11

I've even had people yell at ME, for saying that psychiatry requires a medical degree. Why can't other disciplines help? Why does it need to be so exclusive?

Exactly how and why the rules are *my* fault has never been explained

/12

And this isn't to say that trained psychologists aren't useful or can't help others. Of course they can. They can often be more helpful than psychiatrists. But nonetheless, they're different disciplines. Psychiatrists need a degree in medicine (at the very least)

/13

Don't know if anyone on here needed to know this, but I've dealt with enough angst and upset from people who didn't know it until too late. So, if I can spread the word ahead of time, I figure that'll limit crushing disappointment in future. Maybe

Can't hurt, at least

/end

Took nearly 30 minutes to get a reply like this. Maybe Twitter really is mellowing in its old age?

Counterpoint: No, it *really* doesn't.