Peer Support Worker

In this role you will support adults living with mental health difficulties by providing trauma informed relational peer support, nurturing relationships which are mutual, explorative and share power, helping people to overcome the distress they experience and achieve the goals which are important to them.

You will be responsible for a case load of individuals who you will support either face-to-face or via telephone, on a one-to-one or group basis. You will engage empathically with those you support, providing positive emotional and therapeutic support, through a collaborative approach which focuses on individual strengths rather than deficits, enabling and promoting autonomy and self-care.

Due to the nature of the role, it requires applicants to have personal experience of mental distress to meet the job requirements.

You will work alongside clinical staff and staff from other VCSE organisations to form multidisciplinary team approach to collaboratively support individuals in the community. You will be supported by VCSE Coordinator, Operational Programme Manager and Clinical Lead. CPD opportunities are available and personal interests/skills will be supported to development and growth. You will also be involved in the on-going development of Peer Support Worker practice across the Service, including things such as training programmes and evaluations.

Key Responsibilities

· Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, accepting referrals from the MDT for individuals who are identified as benefiting from support. Managing and prioritising your caseload, in accordance with the needs, priorities and any urgent support required. 

·Engage empathically with visitors in distress, providing positive emotional and therapeutic support, predominantly face to face but occasionally via telephone.

· Co-create personalised support plans alongside individuals, exploring their health and wellbeing needs, to support them to navigate their experiences of distress.

· Manage client data appropriately, ensuring records are accurately kept in line with our policies and procedures.

·  Work closely with the VCSE Service Coordinator to support the development of the service across the project.

Supporting Clients

· To establish supportive and respectful relationships with people using the LW service, informed by trauma informed practice and recovery orientated approaches. 

·To support those people using the LW service to identify their strengths, personal interests, and goals, drawing on your mutual resources as peers and utilising a range of recovery tools, techniques, and experiences.

  To share own personal experiences with those you support when therapeutically appropriate.

· To support people using the LW service to identify and overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk and self-stigmatisation

·  use own initiative, personal experience, and job-related training in deciding on the approach and interventions required when supporting individuals assigned to you.

 

Service Delivery

· To work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team, contribute to team meetings and MDT meetings to ensure continuity of care for people and to ensure their safety.

· To work with colleagues to develop and facilitate therapeutic groupwork.

· To liaise with carers, other health professionals, statutory and voluntary agencies to enable the recovery needs of people using the service.

·  To raise awareness of recovery language with all staff/partners by modelling positive strengths based, non-discriminatory, non-jargon, trauma informed language in all areas of work.

·  To support other members of the multi-disciplinary team in promoting a recovery orientated environment and in identifying recovery focused activities facilitating the sharing of information/education as required.

· Provide referral partners with timely updates about the support provide to ensure the support and care individuals receive is delivered collaboratively and well-coordinated.

· To comply with all training requirements aligned to this role including mandatory training. To actively identify training needs and be prepared to engage in any other training/development opportunities relevant to this role.

· To identify, report and manage any safeguarding concerns, in-line with the organisations policies and procedures.

Service Development

· Support the VCSE Service Lead with the delivery of the VCSE service as a whole, contributing to its ongoing improvement and development.

· Assist management in preparing quarterly monitoring reports outlining progress of the work, assessment of the project impact and outcomes, and key issues raised by members and other stakeholders.

·  To motivate and encourage other people who use services and carers to get involved in the Service User and Carer Engagement Scheme and Volunteering Scheme if they show an interest in being involved.

General Expectations

· To be familiar with and carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the expectations set out in the Organisations and relevant Trust policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines.

· To avoid unlawful discriminatory behaviour and actions when dealing with the colleagues, people who use services, members of the public and all stakeholders.

· Carry out the role adhering to Bury Involvement Group’s values and Code of Conduct using a person-centred recovery orientated approach.

  To actively participate in regular line management and clinical supervision, including group reflective practice, to identify personal developmental needs.

· To attend and contribute to any meetings required as part of this role whether this be internal multi-disciplinary meetings, and/or meetings with external agencies.

· The post holder is required to understand systems that govern confidentiality such as Caldicott, the Data Protection Act, and GDPR and to understand the limits of these systems in terms of sharing information to minimise harm to visitors and others.

· Not to communicate to anyone, inside or outside the Organisation, information relating to people who use services, staff, contractors or any information of a commercially sensitive nature, unless done in the normal course of carrying out the duties of the post and with appropriate permission.

· Maintain high standards of quality in record keeping ensuring information is always recorded accurately, appropriately and kept up to date in accordance with national and organisational policies and within the scope of the Peer Support Workers responsibility.

· Shared responsibility for security of the building and for the safekeeping of confidential notes and information. 

· Undertake personal training as may be required to keep up to date and fulfil the professional requirements identified for this job description.

· To access only information, whether paper, electronic, or, in another media, which is authorised to you as part of the duties of your role.

· To undertake any other reasonable duty, when requested to do so by an appropriate manager.

There will be an expectation to travel across the Borough working across different sites. There may also be the occasional expectation to travel across the Pennine Care Foundation Trust footprint to attend meetings/training.

Diversity

•  We are an inclusive organisation that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone – all talents and backgrounds. BIG strives to make sure that every applicant is assessed solely on the basis of personal merit and qualifications, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, marital or civil partner status, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability or age.

· It is Bury Involvement Group’s policy to make reasonable adjustments if necessary and possible to enable workers with disabilities to undertake the above tasks

Safeguarding

•  At Bury Involvement Group, we aim to provide an environment which is safe for all the individuals who use our service and the staff and volunteers who work for us. We have a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of adults with care and support needs. We aim at all times, to work in a way that is consistent with our philosophy, as a person centred, service user led organisation. Our aim, always, is to promote the dignity and empowerment of the people we support and provide a consistent, warm, empathic and respectful service. To mitigate the risk to the people who use our service, from potentially unsuitable candidates, involvement within the Organisation will be subject to an acceptable DBS disclosure.

 

Working Conditions

•        Contact with visitors to the service who may be highly distressed.

•        Use of computer for data entry and undertaking relevant office work.

•        Liaison with wide range of Health and Social Care professionals, daily.

•        Frequent telephone calls including mobile phone calls, daily.

•        With reasonable adjustments made, the post holder will be required to use a keyboard, computer screen, and telephone. The role may involve occasional light lifting and carrying files around the office.

 

This job description is not exhaustive but is intended to give an overall picture of the role. Other duties within the general scope of the post may be required from time to time. The duties of the post and job description can be reviewed through the supervision process.