Psychiatry Recruitment Firm
Psychiatrist recruiters for mental health clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and health systems
Psychiatry is the specialty MedStaff Nationwide was built on. We are a permanent psychiatry recruitment firm: psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, and therapists recruited for community mental health centers, CCBHCs, psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, and integrated care programs nationwide, on contingency, with a 27-day average time-to-fill and a replacement guarantee on every placement.
We stand behind every placement — any candidate who doesn't complete onboarding is replaced at no cost.
Why mental health organizations hire us
A psychiatry recruiting firm that is not starting from a job board
Our recruiters spend every day talking to board-certified and board-eligible psychiatrists and PMHNPs about what would make them move. When your search opens, the first candidates come from those conversations, not from a posting. That is the difference between a search that closes in a month and one that sits for a year.
We recruit the whole behavioral health team from one intake: the medical director, the psychiatrists, the PMHNPs who carry volume, and the psychologists and therapists who complete the program. One recruiter owns all of it, sequences the hires so supervision is in place before the volume starts, and reports weekly.
Right now we are running 102 active behavioral health searches across 23 states, in markets including San Diego, La Grande, Mansfield, and Derby, with posted psychiatrist compensation from $230k–$500k.
Psychiatry search lines
- Psychiatrists41 open
Adult, child and adolescent, geriatric, addiction, forensic, and consult-liaison psychiatrists; inpatient, outpatient, and telepsychiatry
The volume engine of most outpatient and CMHC programs; screened on prescribing experience, population, and state scope
Clinical, neuro-, and testing psychologists for hospitals, group practices, and integrated care
Outpatient, school-based, crisis, and substance use counselors, plus clinical supervisors
- Locum tenens psychiatry
Interim psychiatrists and PMHNPs, on site or by telepsychiatry, through MedStaff Locum Tenens while a permanent search runs
Who we recruit for
Every kind of mental health organization, and what each search turns on
The discipline is the same everywhere: a structured intake, direct outreach, verification, and a managed credentialing file. The pitch, the pool, and the timeline change with the setting.
Community mental health centers
CMHCs run the largest psychiatry searches we see: a medical director, several PMHNPs, and a therapy bench, often across multiple county sites with a Medicaid-heavy panel. Loan repayment, schedule, and mission are the recruiting tools, and we use them from the first call.
Certified community behavioral health clinics
CCBHC status brings crisis, SUD, and care-coordination requirements that need prescribers in place by a date. We staff the psychiatric side of a CCBHC build-out as one engagement with one timeline.
Psychiatric hospitals and inpatient units
Freestanding psychiatric hospitals, inpatient units inside general hospitals, and state hospitals. Unit psychiatrists, PMHNPs, consult-liaison coverage, and the medical director who holds it together.
Outpatient mental health clinics and group practices
Private and system-owned outpatient psychiatry, from a two-psychiatrist practice adding its first PMHNP to a multi-site group competing with telehealth platforms for the same clinicians.
FQHCs and integrated primary care
Behavioral health embedded in a health center or primary care group: PMHNPs and therapists working alongside family physicians, with a consulting psychiatrist. See our FQHC recruitment page for the full model.
Substance use and addiction treatment
Opioid treatment programs, residential and outpatient SUD, and hospital addiction medicine services. Addiction psychiatrists and medicine physicians, buprenorphine-waivered PMHNPs, and counselors.
Crisis services and emergency psychiatry
Crisis stabilization units, psychiatric emergency services, mobile crisis, and 988-linked programs. Searches where coverage hours and the on-call model decide who accepts.
Residential, PRTF, and child and adolescent programs
Psychiatric residential treatment facilities and child and adolescent programs, where the child psychiatrist search is the hardest in the specialty and the one we run most often.
Correctional and forensic
Jail and prison mental health, forensic units, and competency restoration programs. A distinct candidate pool, and we know who is in it.
Telepsychiatry and hybrid programs
Fully remote, hybrid, and hub-and-spoke telepsychiatry for health systems and platforms, with every candidate screened for licensure in each state the program serves.
Academic and training programs
Faculty psychiatrists, residency and fellowship leadership, and clinician-educators for academic medical centers and community-based training programs.
VA, military, and public sector
State, county, and federal behavioral health systems with their own credentialing paths and pay scales. We recruit to the mission and manage the paperwork.
Subspecialty and setting
Which psychiatrist you need, and how scarce each one is
A role posted as “psychiatrist” usually means one of these. Naming it at intake sets the pool, the compensation range, and the realistic timeline, and tells us whether the role can be opened to a PMHNP with psychiatrist supervision instead.
- Adult psychiatry
- General adult inpatient and outpatient; the largest pool and the most competitive market.
- Child and adolescent
- Fellowship-trained; the scarcest search in the specialty. We maintain a standing pipeline for it.
- Geriatric
- Memory care, long-term care consultation, and inpatient geropsychiatry units.
- Addiction
- Addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine for SUD programs and hospital consult services.
- Forensic
- Correctional, court, and state hospital forensic programs; competency and risk evaluation.
- Consult-liaison
- Psychiatric consultation to medical and surgical units, emergency departments, and proactive CL models.
- Inpatient and hospitalist psychiatry
- Unit-based psychiatrists on block schedules, often with APP teams and nocturnist coverage.
- Interventional
- ECT, TMS, esketamine, and ketamine programs that need credentialed, procedurally experienced psychiatrists.
Building the team
Psychiatrist, PMHNPs, and therapists: the order the hires have to happen in
Most behavioral health programs are not one hire. They are a psychiatrist or medical director who holds the collaborative agreements and the hardest cases, two to four PMHNPs who carry the prescribing volume, and a therapy bench that the prescribers refer to. The ratio depends on the state's supervision rules, the payer mix, and whether the program is outpatient, inpatient, or crisis.
The order matters. In a reduced or restricted practice state a PMHNP cannot prescribe without a collaborating psychiatrist on file, so hiring the PMHNPs first produces clinicians who cannot see patients. We put the psychiatrist search first, run the PMHNP searches in parallel so they close as the agreement is signed, and fill the therapy roles against the referral volume the prescribers will create.
For the PMHNP side in detail, see our psychiatric nurse practitioner recruiters page and the nurse practitioner recruitment hub, which covers scope of practice state by state.
What we settle at intake
- Supervision structure. Who collaborates with or supervises the PMHNPs, the chart review and ratio rules in each state, and whether the psychiatrist's time for it is budgeted.
- Caseload and schedule. Panel size, new-patient slots per week, no-show rate, documentation time, and the on-call model. The numbers clinicians leave over.
- Population and acuity. Adult, child, geriatric, SUD, SMI, forensic. The population sets the certification and the pool.
- Telehealth share. How much of the role can be remote, and in which states, because that is the first question a candidate with a telehealth offer asks.
- Compensation and loan repayment. Base, productivity, sign-on, and NHSC or state loan repayment eligibility, benchmarked against current postings and state medians before the search opens.
What makes psychiatry recruiting hard
Demand outstrips supply in nearly every market
Most psychiatrists already have several open offers and most PMHNPs are fielding recruiter calls weekly. A posting alone rarely produces a candidate who is both qualified and genuinely available. This is a direct outreach specialty.
The team has to be built in order
A PMHNP needs a collaborating psychiatrist in most states; a therapy program needs a prescriber to refer to. We sequence the searches so the medical director is in place before the volume hires start, and we run them as one engagement.
Supervision and scope vary by state
Collaborative practice rules, prescriptive authority, controlled substance limits, and transition-to-practice periods for PMHNPs differ in every state you serve. We check them before we search, not after an offer.
Telehealth is the competition
National telepsychiatry platforms recruit the same psychiatrists and PMHNPs with set schedules, no commute, and competitive pay. We position your caseload, support, and mission against that, honestly.
Caseload and support decide retention
Clinicians leave over panel size, documentation burden, and no-show rates more than over pay. We ask about all three at intake and present them accurately, because a surprise in month two is a resignation in month six.
Credentialing and enrollment run long
State licensing, DEA registration, Medicaid and commercial enrollment, and for some programs CCBHC or state hospital credentialing can add months. We start the file the day the offer is accepted.
Verified before you see a resume
What a psychiatrist recruiter checks before presenting a candidate
A psychiatrist search firm earns its fee in the screen, not the sourcing. Every candidate we present has been through the checklist at right, plus a conversation about why they would move, where, and for what, so the people you interview are qualified for the role and genuinely available for it.
For psychiatric nurse practitioners the list adds board certification by population, prescribing and controlled substance history, and the collaborative practice rule in each state the role covers.
- Board certification or eligibility (ABPN) verified
- Active state licenses and DEA confirmed, with pending applications tracked
- Subspecialty fellowship training checked against the role
- Malpractice history and references from supervising clinicians
- Telehealth experience and EHR familiarity documented
- Motivation, geography, and compensation expectations confirmed before presentation
Our Process
How a psychiatry search runs
Deep Discovery
We start with a structured intake — understanding your clinical needs, culture, and mission.
Precision Sourcing
Drawing on our 190,000-candidate database and direct outreach, we identify the nation's top providers.
Vetting & Compliance
Every candidate is screened for credentials, references, licensure, and motivation before you ever see a résumé.
Presentation & Feedback
Expect curated shortlists, transparent timelines, and proactive updates — no surprises.
Partnership Beyond Placement
We track retention and performance post-hire and stay engaged for long-term success.
Cost and compensation
What it costs to hire a psychiatrist through us, and what psychiatrists are paid
We work on contingency. There is no retainer, no hourly billing, and no fee unless you hire. The placement fee is a percentage of first-year base compensation, agreed in writing before the search opens, and it does not change if the search runs long or the offer comes in above the range we discussed. Organizations building a team with us get a volume rate across the searches.
Against that fee, the cost of an open psychiatrist role is the visits not happening, the PMHNPs who cannot prescribe without a collaborator, and the locum bill rate if you are bridging. Most of our psychiatry searches close inside a month, and the fee is usually smaller than one more month of all three.
- What psychiatrists are earning on our searches
- Posted base compensation on our open psychiatrist searches currently runs $230k–$500k, with a median midpoint of $300k. Inpatient, child and adolescent, and rural roles sit at the top of that range; outpatient roles in metro markets at the bottom.
- Replacement guarantee
- If a placed clinician does not complete onboarding, we re-run the search at no additional cost. Our 12-month retention across placements is 96 percent.
Psychiatrist pay by state
| State | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| California | $353,500 | $315,380 |
| Louisiana | $345,040 | $321,300 |
| Alaska | $342,170 | $278,800 |
| Minnesota | $336,410 | $333,320 |
| Wisconsin | $331,070 | $282,980 |
| Connecticut | $326,670 | $292,660 |
| Florida | $316,200 | $328,060 |
| Oregon | $314,880 | $282,210 |
| Missouri | $312,680 | $345,860 |
| Maryland | $305,320 | $306,100 |
| Washington | $304,920 | $265,600 |
| Vermont | $302,770 | $298,070 |
Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, psychiatrists (SOC 29-1223), highest state medians. $239,200+ is the BLS top code: the true median is at or above it. Each state recruiter page carries the full behavioral health set.
Searches in progress
Psychiatry and behavioral health roles we are recruiting for today
Which one you need
Psychiatrist recruitment firm, psychiatry staffing agency, or a job board
Psychiatrist recruitment firms, psychiatry search firms, psych recruiters, headhunters, staffing agencies: the names get used interchangeably in a search box and describe two different services plus a job board. Most mental health organizations need the first two at different moments.
Recruitment firm
A permanent search run by a named recruiter: direct outreach to psychiatrists and PMHNPs who are not applying anywhere, verification, interview and offer support, and a hire who becomes your employee for a one-time contingency fee.
Best for: a role open more than 60 days, a child psychiatrist or medical director, a team build-out, or a market where postings bring nobody. This page.
Staffing agency
Locum tenens psychiatry on an hourly or daily bill rate, on site or by telepsychiatry. The clinician stays the agency's employee, malpractice is carried by the agency, and the engagement ends when the need does.
Best for: a vacancy, a leave, or keeping a unit or clinic open while the permanent search runs. MedStaff Locum Tenens handles this side.
Job boards
A posting that reaches clinicians who are actively looking this week. Low cost, no screening, and the same applicants every competing program and telehealth platform sees.
Best for: therapist roles in strong metro markets where applicants arrive on their own. When a psychiatrist posting has been up 90 days without a hire, it has become a search.
Psychiatry recruiters by state
Where we are recruiting psychiatry and behavioral health clinicians today
Each state page lists the searches we are running there, our placement history in the state, and the state's Bureau of Labor Statistics wage benchmarks for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, and counselors. We recruit in all 50 states; these are the ones with active behavioral health engagements right now.
What Clients Say
“Alyssa is amazing. Does not waste my staff's time. Very articulate and focused.”
“Great company to work with. The staff at MedStaff is reliable, professional, and knowledgeable of client needs. The process was easy and the candidates were outstanding.”
Why Employers Choose MedStaff
- Exclusive access to top-tier clinicians across every specialty
- Dedicated account manager and transparent communication
- National reach with boutique-level attention
- Proven results backed by data, not promises
FAQ
Psychiatry recruiting, answered
- What does a psychiatry recruitment firm do?
- A psychiatry recruitment firm finds, screens, and presents psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, and therapists for permanent positions at mental health organizations. MedStaff Nationwide runs the full search on contingency: defining the role, direct outreach to clinicians who are not applying anywhere, credential and reference verification, interview coordination, offer support, and the credentialing file through the start date.
- Are you a psychiatry recruitment company, a search firm, or a staffing agency?
- MedStaff Nationwide is a permanent psychiatry recruitment firm, which is what most people mean by a psychiatrist search firm, recruitment company, or psych recruiters: we run the search on contingency and the clinician becomes your employee. Our sister company MedStaff Locum Tenens is the staffing side, placing psychiatrists and PMHNPs on temporary assignments. Many clients use both at once, with a locum covering the role while the permanent search runs.
- Which psychiatry roles do you recruit?
- Adult, child and adolescent, geriatric, addiction, forensic, consult-liaison, and inpatient psychiatrists; psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners; clinical and neuropsychologists; licensed therapists and counselors; and behavioral health leaders such as medical directors, chief medical officers, and clinical directors.
- How much does psychiatry recruitment cost?
- We work on contingency: no retainer and no fee unless you hire. The placement fee is a percentage of first-year base compensation, agreed in writing before the search opens, and every placement includes a replacement guarantee. Organizations building a team with us get a volume rate across the searches.
- How long does a psychiatrist search take?
- Our average time-to-fill across permanent clinical searches is 27 days from signed agreement to accepted offer. Adult psychiatry and PMHNP searches in metro markets often close inside that; child and adolescent psychiatry and rural searches run longer. Your recruiter sets a realistic timeline at intake and reports against it weekly.
- Do you recruit for community mental health centers?
- Yes. CMHCs and CCBHCs are the largest share of our psychiatry work. Those searches are won on loan repayment eligibility, HPSA scoring, schedule, and mission rather than base salary, and we recruit to those strengths. We also run the whole team, from medical director to PMHNPs to therapists, as one engagement.
- Do you recruit for psychiatric hospitals and inpatient units?
- Yes. Freestanding psychiatric hospitals, inpatient units inside general hospitals, state hospitals, and crisis stabilization units. Unit psychiatrists, PMHNPs, consult-liaison coverage, nocturnists, and unit medical directors.
- Can you fill child and adolescent psychiatry roles?
- Yes. Child and adolescent psychiatry is our most active and hardest search line. We keep a standing pipeline of fellowship-trained child psychiatrists and set expectations about timeline and compensation honestly at intake.
- Do you recruit psychiatric nurse practitioners?
- Yes, and PMHNPs are the majority of behavioral health searches we run. We confirm board certification, prescribing experience by population, controlled substance history, and the collaborative practice rules in each state the role covers before presenting anyone.
- Can you fill telepsychiatry roles?
- Yes. We recruit for fully remote, hybrid, and on-site telepsychiatry programs and screen every candidate for licensure in the states your program serves. Telehealth candidates are also where we most often need to position your in-person role against a remote offer.
- Can you provide locum tenens psychiatry coverage?
- Yes. MedStaff Locum Tenens places credentialed psychiatrists and PMHNPs for vacancy, leave, and surge coverage, on site or by telepsychiatry, with conversion terms if the locum becomes a permanent hire.
- What are psychiatrists paid?
- Bureau of Labor Statistics state medians for psychiatrists run from the low two-hundreds to above the top-coded figure of $239,200 in many states, and posted compensation on our searches reflects that spread by setting. The table on this page shows the state figures, and each state physician recruiter page carries the full set of behavioral health occupations.
- What happens if the clinician leaves?
- Every placement is covered by our replacement guarantee. If a placed clinician does not complete onboarding, we re-run the search at no additional cost. Our 12-month retention rate across placements is 96 percent.
From our research desk
For Psychiatrists and PMHNPs
Looking for your next psychiatry role?
Browse our open psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse practitioner searches by state, or set up a job alert and we will send you new roles that match.
Ready to open a psychiatry search?
Schedule a consultation with our team — every inquiry is answered within one business day.