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Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers vs Psychiatric Aides

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers and Psychiatric Aides on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers Psychiatric Aides
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,060
$41,590
Employment · BLS OEWS
125,910
34,900
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
49th pct
17th pct

At a glance

Dimension Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers Psychiatric Aides
Median pay $60,060 $41,590
Employment 125,910 34,900
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+9.7%) Declining (-0.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 13,500 5,300
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree). Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 49th pct Low · 17th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 53rd pct · 28% of tasks —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (52.2%) —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No —

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Therapy and Counseling, Psychology, Oral Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Oral Expression, Active Listening, Speaking, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, English Language, Coordination, Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Speech Recognition, Customer and Personal Service, Writing, Learning Strategies, Persuasion, Information Ordering, Category Flexibility, Sociology and Anthropology, Judgment and Decision Making, Negotiation, Active Learning, Instructing, Flexibility of Closure, Near Vision.

Specific to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Originality
  • Education and Training
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Systems Analysis
  • Time Management

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

  • Selective Attention
  • Far Vision
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Trunk Strength
  • Auditory Attention
  • Administrative

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers or Psychiatric Aides — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers vs Psychiatric Aides." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers-vs-psychiatric-aides

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers vs Psychiatric Aides. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers-vs-psychiatric-aides

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers-vs-psychiatric-aides,
  title  = {Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers vs Psychiatric Aides},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers-vs-psychiatric-aides}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.