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SalaryJob Purpose
This role is within our helpline service, which is a telephone line service running from 11am-11pm, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for residents of Hounslow over 18. The aim of the service is to de-escalate and support those in or nearing a mental health or social crisis and to support those navigate services within Hounslow.
The telephone line will be staffed with Helpline Support Workers, who will carry out a triage assessment with the caller and provide de-escalation and practical support. They will provide de-escalation and signposting support surrounding various crises including suicide prevention. The Support Workers will work closely with our existing crisis alternative service – Safe Space – to support callers where escalation is required; they will work closely with the onsite team to arrange face to face appointments where needed. They will also work closely with our Mind HFEH day services to signpost into social and psychoeducation services to provide holistic preventative support.
The Role
The role of the Helpline Support Worker is to triage and assess all incoming calls and assist callers with their mental health or social crises. This will consist of 1:1 support; de-escalating and providing intervention during the call, signposting for specialised or longer-term support, and delivering collaborative self-management plans with clients to improve mental wellbeing. The aim of this service is to de-escalate and prevent crises.
The role will consist of two shift patterns to ensure the service is covered: 10:30am-5:30pm and 4:30-11:30pm. This will be on a rota basis across all Support Workers.
You can download a PDF of the job description for this role at the bottom of the page.
About Us
Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow Mind are a specialist mental health provider and part of the Mind Federation. We provide support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem.
The lived experience of people with mental health problems is at the heart of everything we say and do.
We campaign to improve services and are committed to empowering local residents, promoting wellbeing and supporting recovery.
We work to transform understanding of mental health in the workplace, in schools and public services.
We do this by providing a range of services that are empowering, recovery focused and preventative.
Key Responsibilities
- Providing a person centred and recovery orientated approach in all aspects of the roles and responsibilities.
- Promoting people’ rights and responsibilities
- Considering each person as an individual
- Working collaboratively with clients to understand their needs and developing flexible and realistic crisis support packages/person centred plans
- Understanding of safety planning
- Experience with de-escalation, recognising and mitigating risks.
- Experience of working with those in crisis and challenging behaviour
- Listening to clients and encouraging positive steps towards self-management of crisis and recovery
- Understanding safeguarding adults and children processes and legal requirements
- Understanding of social issues such as debt, housing and welfare benefits
- Promoting people’ rights and responsibilities
- Providing advice, information, practical and emotional support to clients
- Proactively recognising the indicators of deteriorating mental health and facilitate appropriate action, whilst liaising with relevant agencies e.g., CATT, Emergency Duty Teams, CAMHS, Safe Space etc
- Engaging with clients to show empathy, inspire hope and promote recovery
- Establishing supportive, empowering and respectful relationships with clients and carers/ family
- Maintaining accurate records, detailing interventions
- Ensuring that outcomes, outputs and impact are recorded
- Providing administrative support to the team
- Attend reflective practice, clinical supervision, peer supervision and line management supervision
- Create and maintain good working relationships with partner agencies
- Follow workplans
- Actively participate in training and development
- Provide and manage resources for clients and staff
Person Specification
- Minimum of 1 year working in mental health services and with clients experiencing mental health distress and crisis
- Experience of managing challenging behaviour and dealing with clients with complex needs
- Experience of managing safeguarding risks and understanding legal requirements for safeguarding adults and children
- Evidence of continual professional development
- Understanding of the principles of trauma informed care
- Understanding of suicide prevention and safety planning
- Understanding of the relationship between mental health and social issues and how these issues may impact on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing
- Understanding of relevant legislation and policies
- Awareness of issues in mental health service provision
- A good understanding of mental health conditions
- Experience of working with vulnerable individuals
- Creative and flexible approach to working with individuals
- Ability to deal with stressful and difficult situations in a calm manner and de-escalate challenging situations
- Ability to prioritise and manage workload
- Ability to involve clients and carers in all aspects of work
- Empathy and non-judgemental approach
- Good communication skills
- Capacity to work within an agreed shift pattern
- Experience of delivering information and advice (housing, benefits, debt etc)
- Experience of non-clinical, therapeutic interventions like psychoeducation
- Good IT skills including Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, with proven ability to input and extract information and produce reports
- Car driver with sole ownership of a vehicle and willingness to travel to locations would be desirable.
- Ability to work out of hours, during the day and on weekends Staff within this role will be considered key workers, so in the event of a government lockdown, staff will be expected to continue working
Post is subject to a DBS check.
We are an equal opportunities employer; and are proud to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons from all backgrounds.
