Skills it runs on
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Psychiatric Technicians
Occupation · SOC 29-2053.00
Care for individuals with mental or emotional conditions or disabilities, following the instructions of physicians or other health practitioners. Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report to medical staff. May participate in rehabilitation and treatment programs, help with personal hygiene, and administer oral or injectable medications.
Also called: MHW (Mental Health Worker) · Mental Health Associate · Mental Health Technician (MHT) · Psychiatric Technician (PT) · BHT (Behavioral Health Technician) · Health Care Technician (Health Care Tech) · LPT (Licensed Psychiatric Technician) · MHA (Mental Health Assistant) · Mental Health Specialist · Residential Aide (RA) · Autism Behavior Technician (Autism Behavior Tech) · Behavior Technician (Behavior Tech)
Job family: Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations
Take this to your AI
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-29-2053-00/context.md directly.
AI work map
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Market signal
Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
- Growing fast employment outlook (+20.0% by 2034)
- 15,900 openings/yr
- Low AI exposure
- Median pay $42,590/yr
- Work is mostly on-site (not teleworkable)
26th-percentile task overlap — yet about 15,900 openings a year (+20% projected, BLS) . What exposure means →
AI & job outlook
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Exposure to current AI
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) Moderate | 42nd | -0.2 | |
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) Low | 28th | 0.2 | |
| AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) Low | 15th | 0.1 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.0), with simple added tooling (β 0.1), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.2). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
This job mostly cannot be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman) — its hands-on tasks sit outside what software-based AI reaches.
Historical automation estimate (2013)
A pre-LLM (2013) estimate of how automatable this job is by computerization and robotics. Shown for historical context only — it is not part of any current AI ranking.
Frey–Osborne probability 0.0 · 23rd percentile among occupations · Low
Job outlook
Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.
| Outlook | Growing fast · +20.0% by 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | 15,900 |
| Employment 2024 → 2034 | 144,500 → 173,300 |
“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.
Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient
The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.
Psychiatric Technicians sits at the 57th percentile of 427
occupations on the global GenAI task-exposure gradient
— exposure rose from 2023 to 2025. Each dot is one occupation; the
ringed one is this work. Exposure is task overlap, not automation or jobs lost.
30% mean task exposure (2025)
57th percentile of 427 placed occupations
+4 pts shift 2023 → 2025
| International occupation (ISCO-08) | Task exposure (2025) | Most tasks fall in |
|---|---|---|
| Health Associate Professionals Not Elsewhere Classified · 3259 | 30% | Minimal |
Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.
Tasks
All 16 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
- Provide nursing, psychiatric, or personal care to mentally ill, emotionally disturbed, or mentally retarded patients. Core · importance 4.7
- Administer oral medications or hypodermic injections, following physician's prescriptions and hospital procedures. Supplemental · importance 4.6
- Encourage patients to develop work skills and to participate in social, recreational, or other therapeutic activities that enhance interpersonal skills or develop social relationships. Core · importance 4.5
- Restrain violent, potentially violent, or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required. Core · importance 4.5
- Lead prescribed individual or group therapy sessions as part of specific therapeutic procedures. Supplemental · importance 4.5
- Issue medications from dispensary and maintain records in accordance with specified procedures. Supplemental · importance 4.4
- Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report unusual behavior or physical ailments to medical staff. Core · importance 4.3
- Observe and influence patients' behavior, communicating and interacting with them and teaching, counseling, or befriending them. Core · importance 4.3
- Take and record measures of patients' physical condition, using devices such as thermometers or blood pressure gauges. Core · importance 4.3
- Aid patients in performing tasks, such as bathing or keeping beds, clothing, or living areas clean. Supplemental · importance 4.2
- Collaborate with or assist doctors, psychologists, or rehabilitation therapists in working with mentally ill, emotionally disturbed, or developmentally disabled patients to treat, rehabilitate, and return patients to the community. Core · importance 4.2
- Interview new patients to complete admission forms, to assess their mental health status, or to obtain their mental health and treatment history. Supplemental · importance 4.1
- Develop or teach strategies to promote client wellness and independence. Core · importance 4.0
- Train or instruct new employees on procedures to follow with psychiatric patients. Core · importance 3.9
- Escort patients to medical appointments. Supplemental · importance 3.9
- Contact patients' relatives to arrange family conferences. Supplemental · importance 3.4
Work activities
- Train medical providers.
- Move patients to or from treatment areas.
- Inform medical professionals regarding patient conditions and care.
- Treat patients using psychological therapies.
- Care for patients with mental illnesses.
- Interact with patients to build rapport or provide emotional support.
- Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
- Operate diagnostic or therapeutic medical instruments or equipment.
- Record patient medical histories.
- Encourage patients or clients to develop life skills.
- Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
- Assist healthcare practitioners during examinations or treatments.
- Teach health management classes.
- Position patients for treatment or examination.
- Assist patients with hygiene or daily living activities.
- Administer non-intravenous medications.
- Administer intravenous medications.
- Maintain medical facility records.
- Maintain inventory of medical supplies or equipment.
- Collect medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals.
- Perform clerical work in medical settings.
Knowledge, skills & abilities
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Knowledge
Transferable skills
| Social Perceptiveness | 4.1 | |
| Coordination | 3.9 | |
| Service Orientation | 3.6 | |
| Instructing | 3.3 | |
| Persuasion | 3.1 | |
| Negotiation | 3.0 | |
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.0 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.0 | |
| Time Management | 3.0 |
Essential skills
| Active Listening | 4.0 | |
| Monitoring | 4.0 | |
| Speaking | 3.9 | |
| Reading Comprehension | 3.8 | |
| Critical Thinking | 3.6 | |
| Writing | 3.3 | |
| Active Learning | 3.1 | |
| Learning Strategies | 3.0 |
Abilities
| Oral Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Oral Expression | 4.0 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 4.0 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 3.8 | |
| Written Comprehension | 3.6 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 3.6 | |
| Written Expression | 3.5 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.5 | |
| Speech Clarity | 3.5 | |
| Near Vision | 3.4 | |
| Information Ordering | 3.3 | |
| Selective Attention | 3.1 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.0 |
Skills in demand
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
Tools & technology
Work context
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
How to get in
- Job zone
- Zone 3 — Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Education
- Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
- Typical entry-level education
- Postsecondary nondegree award · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
- Related experience
- Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
- Preparation level
- SVP (6.0 to < 7.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.
What to study: Health Professions and Related Programs . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Education of current workers
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| High School Diploma | 19.8% | |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 5.0% | |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 3.2% | |
| Master's Degree | 2.1% |
Interests & work styles
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
Work styles
| Attention to Detail | 10.0 | |
| Integrity | 9.0 | |
| Cooperation | 8.0 | |
| Social Orientation | 7.0 | |
| Self-Control | 6.0 | |
| Stress Tolerance | 5.0 | |
| Empathy | 4.0 |
Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)
| Social | 6.9 | |
| Investigative | 4.6 | |
| Conventional | 3.5 | |
| Realistic | 3.3 |
Interest areas
| Social Service | 6.5 | |
| Health Care Service | 6.2 | |
| Social Science | 4.4 | |
| Teaching/Education | 3.7 | |
| Personal Service | 3.3 |
Wages & employment
U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)
| 10th percentile | $32,980 |
| 25th percentile | $37,170 |
| Median (50th) | $42,590 |
| 75th percentile | $48,910 |
| 90th percentile | $60,150 |
| People employed | 136,300 |
Industries that employ this occupation
Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.
| Industry | Workers | National median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector | 122,430 | $41,870 |
| Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) · National industry | 21,290 | $44,720 |
| Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities · National industry | 12,210 | $38,120 |
| Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers · National industry | 10,050 | $43,360 |
| Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry | 7,950 | $43,490 |
| Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities · National industry | 5,110 | $42,530 |
| Educational Services · Sector | 4,140 | $45,180 |
| Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability Facilities · National industry | 3,160 | $44,190 |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services · Sector | 2,280 | $39,520 |
| Temporary Help Services · National industry | 1,210 | $51,430 |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector | — | $36,690 |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) · Sector | — | $55,780 |
Where this work is most concentrated
Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).
| Industry | Concentration | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) · National industry | 99.6× | 21,290 |
| Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities · National industry | 53.4× | 12,210 |
| Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers · National industry | 36.72× | 10,050 |
| Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry | 18.87× | 7,950 |
| Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability Facilities · National industry | 9.18× | 3,160 |
| Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector | 5.99× | 122,430 |
| Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities · National industry | 2.4× | 5,110 |
| Temporary Help Services · National industry | 0.52× | 1,210 |
Related occupations
Part of the Healthcare & Human Services career cluster.
- Psychiatric Aides · 31-1133.00 Compare →
- Physical Therapist Assistants · 31-2021.00 Compare →
- Occupational Therapy Aides · 31-2012.00 Compare →
- Physical Therapist Aides · 31-2022.00 Compare →
- Occupational Therapy Assistants · 31-2011.00 Compare →
- Recreational Therapists · 29-1125.00 Compare →
- Paramedics · 29-2043.00 Compare →
- Home Health Aides · 31-1121.00 Compare →
- Acute Care Nurses · 29-1141.01 Compare →
- Registered Nurses · 29-1141.00 Compare →
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses · 29-1141.02 Compare →
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers · 21-1023.00 Compare →
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
What you can do with this
Options the data surfaces for Psychiatric Technicians — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Skills that travel
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Adjacent roles
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
Paths in
How people typically prepare for this work.
- Postsecondary nondegree award · typical entry level
- Job zone 3 — Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed · preparation tier
- Health Professions and Related Programs · field of study
Zoom out
On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 57th percentile of 427 international occupations.
Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation
Psychiatric Technicians show 26th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 15,900 annual U.S. openings
- Psychiatric Technicians rank in the 26th percentile (Low band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
- The occupation is projected to see about 15,900 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- BLS projects employment to be growing fast (+20%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- Median annual pay is $42,590, across about 136,300 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
Copy the whole kit
Psychiatric Technicians show 26th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 15,900 annual U.S. openings • Psychiatric Technicians rank in the 26th percentile (Low band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • The occupation is projected to see about 15,900 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • BLS projects employment to be growing fast (+20%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • Median annual pay is $42,590, across about 136,300 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024)) Source: Singulariki — "Psychiatric Technicians". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-2053-00 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
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.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
- AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans academic
- ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025 International Labour Organization
- IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022 Institute for Structural Research (IBS)
- Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation academic
- Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome academic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Plain
Singulariki. "Psychiatric Technicians." 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; 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/roles/role-29-2053-00
APA
Singulariki. (2026). Psychiatric Technicians. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-2053-00
BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-29-2053-00,
title = {Psychiatric Technicians},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; 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/roles/role-29-2053-00}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.