Mental Health Writers for Hire: 10 Tips on What to Look For
Quality mental health writing is key to your organisation’s visibility, credibility, and success. While it’s easy to find a writer for mental health services, finding a professional mental health writer is often a challenge.
There’s a world of difference between a ‘writer’ and a ‘professional writer,’ but on the surface, these differences aren’t always visible. Hiring the wrong writer for your needs can translate to lost hours, loss of online integrity, and wasted money.
So, how could a professional freelance mental health writer help your company? And what should you look for when hiring a professional mental health writer? We’ve used our experience with both clients and writers to answer these questions.
How a Professional Freelance Mental Health Writer Can Help Your Organisation
Just because a freelance mental health writer gets paid for their services, doesn’t necessarily make them a professional – which is why companies need to be careful about who they hire.
A professional mental health writer should have two things:
- Qualifications and hands-on involvement in mental health
- Plentiful and rich writing experience
This writing experience should be comprehensive and also incorporate SEO knowledge, so that your business has increased visibility, which translates into conversion.
Additionally, a specialism in a certain area can be beneficial, as it means someone has found a niche in their area of expertise. For example, a freelance mental health writer could help you with:
- Article or blog writing
- Website copy
- Long-form courses
- Research proposals or papers
- Content optimisation
- Bespoke psychological assessments or exercises
- Content strategising
The next section covers several things you should keep an eye out for when hiring a professional freelance mental health writer.
What to Look for in a Professional Freelance Mental Health Writer
The following are ten areas of expertise PsychWrite looks for when hiring freelance mental health writers.
1. Knowledge and Skills
No matter how you cut it, just because someone has a degree in psychology doesn’t necessarily make them a professional writer.
There’s a big difference between writing coursework and creating content that reflects values and incorporates SEO with the aim of conversion. A professional writer understands the rules of language, when it’s appropriate to bend them, and incorporates a client’s voice and goals.
It’s also important to consider the project at hand and what it might require in terms of specialised skills. Are you looking for a series of blogs, webpages, or in-depth courses? The writer should have demonstrable expertise in the specific area you’re hiring in.
2. Appreciation for Ethics
Ethics are to mental health what a shadow is to a body – inseparable.
In both psychological practice and content, ethics works as a backbone, guiding decisions in ways that benefit an audience and prioritise their wellbeing. Without ethics, an audience can lose trust in a business, potentially creating irreparable long-term damage to reputation.
Ethics aren’t just a set of ‘rules’ a writer should follow, they’re guidelines for creating compassionate content which resonates.
3. Responsiveness
There’s nothing more frustrating than checking in with someone about the progress of a project only to get, well, nothing in return. Crickets.
A lot of time and effort can be expended reaching out again and again when someone goes incommunicado and deadlines are left by the wayside.
A professional freelance mental health writer does what they say they’ll do, when they say they’ll do it. They don’t like to be a cog in the wheel of productivity, and understand how important it is to be a team player.
4. Consistency
How often have clients hired a writer, pleased with their initial efforts, only for standards to drop as the working relationship continues?
Consistency in standards is essential for building trust, improving efficiency, and achieving success. Without it, errors can happen, potentially damaging an organisation’s reputation.
This is why the editing process is essential; it means that a drop in standards can be detected before work is passed to clients, and the reasons behind this drop are addressed.
5. Passion
Writing should never be seen as a ‘quick’ or ‘easy’ way to make money. It’s a skill that takes time, effort, and consistent practice to hone.
The idea of writing should spark excitement for delivering the best possible work for a client, considering their needs and goals throughout. Without passion, writing becomes a chore – a means to an end – which neglects opportunities to insert individuality and creativity into services.
6. Style
Truthfully, it’s relatively easy to edit for grammatical mistakes. But a lack of style or ‘voice’ can be nearly impossible to offset. A creative, human voice especially matters in the age of AI, where a homogenised writing style is taking over many platforms.
A professional wellness content writer has a signature style, which cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence. In addition, they’re able to adapt otherwise difficult-to-access content into a digestible, easy-to-understand format.
Unfortunately, many writers think that florid, ‘purple’ writing makes them stand out. In contrast, a professional writer knows what to say and how to say it, without getting caught in the weeds.
7. Availability
If you’re only looking for a writer for a short-term project, availability might not be at the top of your list of concerns. But if you’re after a professional mental health writer who can provide consistent long-term services, availability matters.
It’s good to ask about availability at the start of a project to determine whether a writer can maintain standards and commit to the job. Of course, a professional writer will likely also ask about the specs of a project so that they can ensure they can execute it suitably.
8. High-Quality Samples
On paper, anyone can sound like a credible mental health content writer. Samples can give you a good insight into someone’s ability, style, and tone, and whether they’re a good fit for your needs.
Ideally, someone should have a variety of samples to demonstrate their range, as otherwise, they may lack the experience and skill set required to take on the challenge of disseminating mental health content to a general audience.
But it’s also important that samples are curated. You don’t want or need to see all of someone’s previous work; you want a glimpse into their best work, especially if it aligns with the tone of the project at hand.
9. Openness to Feedback
It’s important to have a sense of pride in your work as a freelance mental health writer, but it’s equally essential to be open to feedback and opportunities for growth. Yes, feedback can be difficult, especially if someone cares deeply about what they do and puts a lot of effort into it. But a professional mental health writer understands that critique is an opportunity to improve.
Plus, to be a mental health writer is to be recursive – everything that is put down on the page should be done with care and consideration. Perhaps more than in any other field of writing. Brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing are important stages of the process.
10. Attention to Detail
I recently had a mental health blog writer complain about not being hired for a second assignment because ‘Grammar is an easy problem to fix.’ True, grammar is easy to fix. But consistently having to pick up on such ‘easy’ to fix issues likely means that someone isn’t paying attention to the details of a project.
When punctuation, spelling mistakes, or grammar issues are regularly present, someone clearly isn’t proofing their work. So, you can’t be confident that they haven’t cut corners elsewhere. As discussed in the last point, an experienced mental health writer doesn’t take chances with the details and quality of their work.
Hire a Mental Health Content Writer With PsychWrite
Hiring a professional freelance wellness writer for your organisation is an investment that can pay off – as long as you’re careful about the hiring process. PsychWrite only provides engaging, evidence-based content that reflects the voice of each client who comes to us.
Our team is passionate about creating mental health content that resonates with clients and readers alike – and our extensive history of 5* ratings is testimony to this. We understand that mental health needs a delicate approach that educates in gentle, empathetic ways.
Hiring with PsychWrite also gives you diverse options, so the right writer is assigned to your unique goals. Our team is multidisciplinary in the field of mental health, combining psychological, therapeutic, medical, pharmaceutical, and research knowledge.
Whatever your mental health content needs, PsychWrite can help. Contact our team today to find out more.
