Job summary
We are excited to be able to offer a unique opportunity in South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation trust to take up a role as a Peer Support Worker (PSW) in the Forensic Services Pathway. These roles have become available through funding for Patient & Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) project funding. PCREF is a Trust-wide initiative to improve equity in access, experience, and outcomes for all our communities, with an initial focus on Black communities. The contribution of this PSW role is to work with Community Forensic Mental Health Teams (CFMHT) to support minorised users, with the support of their families and carers. Funding is available for 16 hours a week (0.4 wte). The funding for the roles will require providing peer support in one of the four borough's CFMHT team. Candidates will be asked as to their preferred location at interview.
Main duties of the job
The aim of this role is to support service users as part of the Trust's equity and anti-racism commitment to minorised communities in forensic services. The role will involve working with with service users, carers, and their families to design and deliver services. This support will involve peer support and advocacy ensuring that patients' voices are heard. Peer Support Workers will use their own lived experiences of mental health issues/services to help others, providing a space where individuals feel respected, accepted, and understood. They will understand that everyone's experience will be unique but will treat everyone's experience as being equally important. This role will need individuals who acknowledge the inherent challenges of racism for Black communities within traditional mental health services. The role will also involve encouraging Black service users and carers to co-produce care plans and advocate for themselves; gathering information to inform them of their options and providing formal feedback to staff in secure settings and the Directorate Leadership team.
The postholder will work closely with staff of the CFMHT's, clinical supervisors, and the PSW Coordinator, and be line managed in Forensic Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy.
About us
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organizations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To work with service users who are on the Forensic Community Mental Health Teams of the relevant SLaM boroughs, or in-reach to hospital wards.
To support black and mixed black service users in Forensic Mental Health Community services in a culturally appropriate way and support Forensic Services to embed the ACD approach and to support harm minimisation for substance mis-use in a culturally-congruent manner.
Contribute to feedback and evaluation following interventions and provide insights on patients participation, including any concerns or suggestions.
To call and/or meet with service users in the community or on wards, or other convenient places, to help them prepare for meetings and to attend appointments with them to speak on their behalf where they unable or do not have the capacity, take notes, and ensure that they understand the proceedings
To work effectively as a member of Forensic teams and the wider multidisciplinary team.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To work with service users who are on the Forensic Community Mental Health Teams of the relevant SLaM boroughs, or in-reach to hospital wards.
To support black and mixed black service users in Forensic Mental Health Community services in a culturally appropriate way and support Forensic Services to embed the ACD approach and to support harm minimisation for substance mis-use in a culturally-congruent manner.
Contribute to feedback and evaluation following interventions and provide insights on patients participation, including any concerns or suggestions.
To call and/or meet with service users in the community or on wards, or other convenient places, to help them prepare for meetings and to attend appointments with them to speak on their behalf where they unable or do not have the capacity, take notes, and ensure that they understand the proceedings
To work effectively as a member of Forensic teams and the wider multidisciplinary team.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to GCSE or equivalent level/or evidence of competency specifically in English and Maths.
- Undertaken or willing to undertake peer support worker or co-production/ facilitation training
- Commitment to obtain underpinning knowledge through work-based learning and Trust mandatory training
Desirable
- Completed Recovery College Train-the-Trainers course
- Peer Support & Advocacy Training
- Experience of participating in Recovery College courses
- Health and Social Care NVQ Level 2 or equivalent
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Personal lived experience of significant mental health difficulties, receiving mental health services, and recovery.
- Experience of using mental health services (for example a community mental health team / promoting recovery team, home treatment team, inpatient stay, emergency department, etc.)
- Demonstrate an understanding of mental health issues, including the experience of admission to in-patient services under the Mental Health Act, and / or the experience of people caught up in Criminal Justice settings
- Experience of working with people with mental health difficulties (paid or voluntary)
Desirable
- Experience of delivering peer support services An interest in developing a career in mental health care Experience of co-facilitating groups and/or training sessions.
- Experience of using acute mental health care services or forensic mental heath or criminal justice setting
- Experience of facilitating or leading a group, or a health/social care/teaching or community enterprise setting including paid or voluntary employment
- Experience with receiving and participating in work-related supervision and guidance.
Skills
Essential
- Able to demonstrate an understanding of the Values of Peer Support
- A commitment to working in an anti-racist and anti-oppressive way
- Communication skills appropriate to engaging with service users and staff.
- Written skills commensurate with the access to and inputting client contacts onto the Trust patient electronic records systems.
- IT skills commensurate with the use of Trust laptops and computers, software and word processing.
Desirable
- Knowledge or skills in the delivery of Recovery College courses.
- Knowledge or skills in supporting individuals with making informed choices.
- Knowledge or skills in supporting individuals with harm-minimisation approaches and motivational interviewing techniques.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to GCSE or equivalent level/or evidence of competency specifically in English and Maths.
- Undertaken or willing to undertake peer support worker or co-production/ facilitation training
- Commitment to obtain underpinning knowledge through work-based learning and Trust mandatory training
Desirable
- Completed Recovery College Train-the-Trainers course
- Peer Support & Advocacy Training
- Experience of participating in Recovery College courses
- Health and Social Care NVQ Level 2 or equivalent
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Personal lived experience of significant mental health difficulties, receiving mental health services, and recovery.
- Experience of using mental health services (for example a community mental health team / promoting recovery team, home treatment team, inpatient stay, emergency department, etc.)
- Demonstrate an understanding of mental health issues, including the experience of admission to in-patient services under the Mental Health Act, and / or the experience of people caught up in Criminal Justice settings
- Experience of working with people with mental health difficulties (paid or voluntary)
Desirable
- Experience of delivering peer support services An interest in developing a career in mental health care Experience of co-facilitating groups and/or training sessions.
- Experience of using acute mental health care services or forensic mental heath or criminal justice setting
- Experience of facilitating or leading a group, or a health/social care/teaching or community enterprise setting including paid or voluntary employment
- Experience with receiving and participating in work-related supervision and guidance.
Skills
Essential
- Able to demonstrate an understanding of the Values of Peer Support
- A commitment to working in an anti-racist and anti-oppressive way
- Communication skills appropriate to engaging with service users and staff.
- Written skills commensurate with the access to and inputting client contacts onto the Trust patient electronic records systems.
- IT skills commensurate with the use of Trust laptops and computers, software and word processing.
Desirable
- Knowledge or skills in the delivery of Recovery College courses.
- Knowledge or skills in supporting individuals with making informed choices.
- Knowledge or skills in supporting individuals with harm-minimisation approaches and motivational interviewing techniques.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
