Safe Haven Crisis Support Worker - 21.5 hours per week - High Wycombe

Application Deadline: 18 October 2024

Department: Safe Haven

Location: Bucks - High Wycombe

Compensation: £24,333 / year

Description

Safe Haven Crisis Support Worker

£24,333 pa full-time, actual £ 14,139 pa

Hours : 21.5hours pw (Monday, Tuesday and Friday 6.00pm – 1.00am plus 2 admin hours – preferred Tuesday AM) – Potential job share options

Permanent role in High Wycombe (occasional shifts in Aylesbury)

Buckinghamshire Mind is seeking a Mental Health Crisis Support Worker to join the team at Safe Haven: our out-of-hours support service for those experiencing a mental health crisis.

Who We Are

Buckinghamshire Mind works to support and represent people with mental health illnesses living across the county. We tackle stigma and discrimination head-on. We support our service-users to live safe, purposeful and fulfilled lives in our communities. We believe in their recovery and are hopeful about their future. Working together with National Mind we will not give up until everyone in our community gets the respect and help that they need.

Who We Need

The right person will join our team in providing support in a safe, calm and empathic environment and ability to support individuals who are at a point of mental health crisis and accessing the service.

Why work with us

You'll develop your understanding and experience of mental health issues and contribute to the development of our services. The hours allow you to balance your life with your work and you'll have a job that makes a difference for people.

See job description for more details and a description of our benefits.

How To Apply

Please send your CV and application form.

Closing date:

Friday 18th October. We reserve the right to close applications early due to high volumes, therefore we advise to apply as soon as possible.

Interviewing process:

We will contact you to make an appointment week commencing 21st October 2024.

Buckinghamshire Mind is an Equal Opportunities and inclusive employer. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. If you meet all the essential criteria we welcome your application as training and development can be provided to give you further skills. Any offer made relating to this post will be subject to satisfactory references and a satisfactory enhanced DBS check.

Purpose of the Role

The Safe Haven Support Worker will work as part of the Safe Haven team based in High Wycombe supporting individuals experiencing an emotional or mental health crisis, offering support in a calm, safe and empathic environment. We offer a blended support service to provide support to individuals unable to travel to our face-to-face hubs. We offer telephone, video calls in addition to Face to Face support, although the following still applies:

The aim of Safe Haven is to provide out of hours mental health support and deliver the following key outcomes: -

Prevention:

• To provide a warm and welcoming environment for those people facing a mental health crisis; treating service users with respect and providing personalised support focused on individual need.
• To prevent the escalation of the mental health crisis and thereby reduce A&E attendance and avoid hospital admissions.
• Reduce visits to primary care services.
  
  

Recovery:

• To offer appropriate interventions that aim to improve the mental health and wellbeing of individuals within a non-clinical setting.
• To raise patient awareness of alternative mental health services, appropriate to personal need and circumstances, and encourage their use to improve longer term mental health and well-being and reduce social isolation.
• To increase independence and good self-management skills of those people accessing the service.
  
  

Safety:

• To provide an environment for individuals which is both safe and non-judgemental with the aims to reduce feelings of isolation whilst supporting the individual to identify risk and empower them manage their mental distress.
• To work collaboratively with statutory mental health services - including out of hours crisis teams, to provide support and interventions to the individual where this becomes appropriate.
  
  

Signposting:

• To provide individual based advice, guidance and emotional support to provide onward links. These include referrals within our Safe Haven+ service which supports, housing needs, including those at who are or at risk of homelessness, benefits support, and substance misuse.
• We also have an excellent range of appropriate services within Buckinghamshire Mind, including Peer groups and Counselling.
  
  

Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge And Skills

Essential:

• Supports the aims and work of Buckinghamshire Mind and Oxford Health NHS Trust
• Maintains strict confidentiality concerning all Buckinghamshire Mind and Oxford Health NHS Trust matters.
• A positive attitude towards people with mental health problems, in particular people's ability to develop and change.
• Experience and/or training in how to deescalate challenging behaviour.
• Strong commitment to equal opportunities and diversity.
• Appropriate and confidential home working space to allow for remote delivery of the service when necessary.
• Experience of providing a support service to adults with mental health difficulties/in emotional distress and maintaining appropriate boundaries
• Ability to form positive working relationships with service users and make a positive contribution to improving the quality of life for people with mental health difficulties.
• Ability to recognise and support the personal resourcefulness of people with mental illness to enable service users to create effective solutions and obtain/retain responsibility for their decision making
• Ability to prioritise your own workload and manage time effectively.
• An ability to demonstrate personal resilience and act calmly in emergencies and utilise support and supervision provided.
• Be committed to the delivery of the Safe Haven Model, understanding limitations and boundaries for supporting service users.
• Demonstrate commitment to continuous development of job-related knowledge and skills, including essential IT skills.
• Ability to access a range of settings including ability to travel between sites
• Able to work weekends/evenings.
  
  

Desirable:

• Knowledge and understanding of the relevant statutory authorities including NHS and social care.
  
  

Communication And Interpersonal Skills

Essential:

• good level of IT skills including Microsoft Office and Outlook.
• good verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• effective team worker with ability to take initiative and work on an individual basis.
• ability to use the support and supervision provided effectively.
• understanding of the importance of team working in a challenging environment services available and the range of ways they can use the Buckinghamshire Mind service and other related services.
  
  

Desirable:

• experience of team working in a challenging environment
• understanding and knowledge of other mental health and related services, both voluntary and statutory.
• ability to use information to ensure people are made aware of the opportunities