[jackflashdrive]

WAI: A psychiatric technician supervises the patients in an inpatient facility. This involves planning and running activities (e.g., taking patients outside for smoke break, handing out and lighting cigs, making sure nobody tries to escape over the wall), managing patients by talking them into not doing something undesireable (e.g., hitting another patient because he pissed on him while he was sleeping), and sometimes physically restraining patients (e.g., carrying them into seclusion room and holding them down while nurse injects sedative). How often you need to do the latter varies a lot depending on the facility. Some facilities go to physical restrain and seclusion as a first resort and these places tend to be much more dangerous for both patients and staff.

Qualifications vary wildly depending on the state. Some states require psych techs to be trained and certified with some sort off degree prior to working, and quality of care is probably better in these states. Florida being the worthless shithole that it is, all you need to be a psych tech in Florida is a High School degree, though some of the better FL facilities require two years of college (any subject) as well.

It is a pretty interesting job, which is punctuated throughout the day with moments of high adrenaline. Unfortunately, too many power-hungry [censored] become psych techs in FL.