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Job overview

VOLUNTARY/SESSION WORKER

5 hours per week

The Heights - Woolwich

The Hearing Voices Group in Greenwich is a peer-led self-help group for people who hear voices or have other unusual experiences such as visions.

The group is supported by Oxleas mental health professionals and community organisations such as Greenwich Mind. The role of the sessional worker will be to facilitate the group at one of the community sites. Training and support will be provided.

Main duties of the job

This role will involve attending the group on a regular basis, offering facilitation during the group, and attending regular supervision with an Oxleas mental health professional. The postholder will also receive support from this named professional on an ad-hoc basis, when raising any issues of concern that may arise during groups.

The group will aim to be consistent with the ‘Hearing Voices Network’ model, which values a peer-led, collaborative model, and recognises the importance of having people with lived experience involved in both the design and delivery of the group. It will be necessary for the sessional worker to have completed the ‘Hearing Voices Network’ training, or be booked onto an upcoming course.

The group has an attendance of about 8-10 individuals; however can go up to a maximum of 15. Members are local people who may be users of primary or secondary care mental health services.

At present, people self-refer to the group by calling the placement supervisors to discuss the suitability of the group and register their interest.

Group supervision is provided monthly for all facilitators. This is an opportunity to discuss any concerns or issues arising from the group and seek appropriate support. The placement supervisors and placement manager will also be happy to offer support as needed outside of supervision time.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.  This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care