Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health - Adolescent Inpatient
- Grade
- Band 3
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 310-CYPF-6362475
- Employer
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- The Darwin Centre for Young People
- Town
- Fulbourn, Cambridge
- Salary
- £22,816 - £24,336 per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/07/2024 23:59
Employer heading
![Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust logo](https://static.trac.jobs/employer-logos/821.png)
Peer Support Worker
Band 3
Job overview
We are looking for a Peer Support Worker to join our team at the Darwin Centre.
The Darwin Centre for Young People is a Tier 4 adolescent inpatient unit based in Cambridge. The unit offers assessment and treatment to young people, aged 13-18 years old, experiencing psychiatric, emotional or psychological problems that interfere with their social, interpersonal and educational functioning.
Main duties of the job
As a Peer Support Worker, you will make a positive impact on people's lives through sharing the wisdom from your own lived experience. You will inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible in others and that you can ‘live well’ with mental health challenges.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
Work in a busy ward environment on both a 1:1 and group basis to provide formalised peer support to adults with significant physical and/or mental health challenges.
Be creative and flexible to the often quickly changing of the ward environment; varying and adapting plans at short notice for the benefit and needs of the peers and current risk levels.
Have insight into your own wellbeing and be proactive in utilising your own learned coping techniques to maintain ongoing wellbeing and self-care.
Contribute to the wider overall care of your peer by writing recovery focussed notes on the NHS system and seeking regular feedback via service set outcome measures.
Support peers to collaboratively set and work towards recovery goals, incorporating hope and optimism through skills for self-confidence/belief, practical coping strategies and positive future planning (e.g., Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)).
Support your peer to overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk refocussing on the unique strengths they have.
Support your peer to self-advocate for their needs and wants within clinical discussions; empowering them to be the expert in their own care.
Facilitate access to groups and networks that enable peers to participate in community activities, in order to maximise opportunities for successful discharge planning.
Value and promote the personal, social, cultural and spiritual uniqueness each peer has.
Act as a positive role model showing professional and caring attitudes and behaviour towards other multi-disciplinary team members, peers and carers.
Raise awareness of recovery language with Trust staff by modelling positive strengths based, non-discriminatory, non-jargon, non-medicalised language in all areas of work.
Support other members of the multi-disciplinary team in promoting a recovery orientated environment and in identifying recovery focused activities imparting information/ education as required.
Attend regular operational and professional supervision (monthly) in accordance with good practice guidelines and Trust policy.
Person specification
Education / Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Good level of GCSE standard education
- Completion of Peer Support Worker Training or commitment to complete within 3-6 months of employment
- Completion of own Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) or similar or commitment to complete within 3-6 months of employment
Desirable criteria
- Related Health or Social Care qualification
Experience
Essential criteria
- Lived experience of a long-term health condition
- Experience of working in a team or a group environment
- Experience of using a range of self-management or recovery tools and techniques
Desirable criteria
- Psychiatric hospital admission
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- Effective verbal and written communication skills
- IT literacy using Microsoft Office
- Willingness to support people with a range of needs to meet their recovery goals
- Ability to maintain a healthy home/work life balance
Physical Requirements
Essential criteria
- Respectful and compassionate
- Patient and a non-judgmental approach
Applicant requirements
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Louise Marks
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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