psychiatric epidemiology - worth it?

[neu_psy_phy]

I am a prospective student of PhD track at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Department of Mental Health. I have been interested in mental health (or other chronic illnesses) service research, and several advisers suggested that Hopkins mental health program may be the closest match to my research interest. However, I am re-examining the career path I may partake if I were to graduate with a PhD degree in mental health, which mainly focuses on causes, consequences, prevention, and intervention of mental disorders. My impression is that students of this program become something along the line of psychiatric epidemiologist. I wonder if any of you have worked with psychiatric epidemiologists and what your impression was about their career. For instance, in which settings do they work and what are their salaries like?

I am not sure if I want to see myself as a psychiatric epidemiologist 10, 20 years from now. I got into mental health research because I imagined myself getting into the career direction of hospital management, community development, education/promotion in mental (chronic) illness, mental (chronic) health policy, etc. Given my broader interests, I am not sure if Hopkins' PhD program truly is a good match for me.

I am an international student, so it looks like four years of my graduate training at Hopkins will be devoid of NIMH or NIH grants; having little source of grant will be detrimental to my career development. I am a senior in college, and in a month, I have to decide whether I should pursue this field in graduate school or take a year off and find a job. If I were to work, can you think of any organizations I can look for, given my interests in public health and/or psychology? Is there any cross-cultural research in the field of public mental health? Any suggestions?

Thanks for your insight!

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