Yes, you can get HCAs on the mental health side, they're sometimes called Nursing Assistants.
I think it'd be cool to be a porter; I just don't think I could do with taking folks down to the mortuary in the middle of the night!
It's a way off yet, but I'm not sure if I'd be better at working in OT on the physical side instead of psychiatric. Doing a degree, I'd be gaining experience in both areas (plus neuro-sciency stuff, which is a bit of both) but am a bit torn about which way to go. I'm not sure I'm robust enough to work in mental health, plus I'm not conversational enough. Being a 'proper' OT, ie. working on a ward would be best, but in my area OTs pretty much do the same as CPNs in the community - not sure I could deal with that.
Sorry to ramble!
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