Job overview

The role of Mental Health Support Worker / Practitioner within Primary Care is to provide support to people with diverse mental health needs that are being assessed and cared for by Primary Care; this may be (but is not limited to) referring to onward Mental Health support from NHFT, supporting individuals to feel able to attend appointments, signposting to third sector support and developing peer support groups for cohorts of local service users. The range and types of interventions provided to service users will be determined by the post holders own individual sphere of competence and by liaising with NHFT mental health services and third sector teams. The role is to navigate the mental health system between primary care and other services, to ensure that the service user is fully supported and can access additional support when required. All interventions administered by the post holder will be under indirect supervision by Northamptonshire Talking Therapies registered and accredited practitioners and from the community of practice of PCN based mental health workers (being established once these MHSP are in post). The Mental Health Support Practitioners will contribute to the ongoing assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care provided to the service users they are working with.

Main duties of the job

This role is available county wide throughout Northamptonshire. Expected working pattern will be to spend one day at Lotus House in Northampton and then the remaining 4 days of the week at allocated GP surgeries. These GP surgeries could be countywide across Northamptonshire. This is a full time patient facing role with limited opportunities for working from home.

Develop therapeutic relationships with service users and carers within primary care and support access into secondary care.

To liaise and share information, as appropriate, which maybe complex and sensitive with others involved in their care and in line with the Consent to Share Information Policy.

To engage service users effectively with the agreed treatment plan and to ensure access to appropriate services are obtained on needs led basis.

Working for our organisation

 Those interested in training and development may have the opportunity to interview in the future to train as a qualified Psychological Well-Being Practitioner under Northamptonshire Talking Therapies as a start for further career development.

Northamptonshire Talking Therapies is a developing service, committed to staff wellbeing and provision of quality therapy following Government NICE guidance for treatment for the population of Northampton. The service aims to continue to build strong local community ties and with this aim as a focus there are numerous opportunities to work on creative projects and initiatives in the local area.