Peer Support Worker | Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust

Are you a dedicated, compassionate mental health professional committed to providing great care? Do you want the chance to help shape a new and genuinely innovative service for the women of Kent and Medway? We are creating Kent and Medway’s first, and only, NHS Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for women, and are seeking a talented Peer Support Worker to help us deliver this vital service.

Please note that the start date for this post will be March 2026, to allow for sufficient time for onboarding, induction, and training before the anticipated arrival of the first patient in April 2026.

We believe that people who have experienced, and who are living well with mental health problems, can be the most knowledgeable, skilled and inspirational supporters of others on the recovery journey. As a Peer Support Worker, you will use your own experience of recovering from mental health issues to encourage, inspire and inform others, supporting them in their own journey of recovery, and acting as a role model. In this way, you can enable our service users to live as independently as possible and make the most of their potential.

We require a period of twelve months without using mental health services prior to applying. If this sounds like the opportunity you have been waiting for, come and join our diverse and compassionate team committed to delivering excellent care and support for service users and their loved ones.

This position benefits from a High Cost Area allowance.

• Building strong, supportive relationships with our Service Users
• Helping Service Users to set realistic and positive goals and empowering them to live fuller, more fulfilling lives
• Supporting the group programme on offer by sharing your own experiences
• Developing the service, and helping its users to get involved in this process
• Completing a range of administrative tasks
• Liaising widely with other staff and services within the community
• Promoting awareness of mental health and reducing stigma

Working in a PICU is very rewarding but we want to be honest and share that it is demanding too. It is likely to be needed by people with severe and complex mental health conditions (e.g. Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, and may be associated with Personality Disorder, Substance Misuse and PTSD). While emotionally challenging, the opportunity to support critically unwell women back to their communities, ensuring 'right care, in the right place, at the right time', is immense, and your skilled, multidisciplinary team will be there to support you.

You would be working as part of a team of mental health experts, dedicated to making sure the most unwell women in our communities have the same access to specialist care as men. We are recruiting now to make sure our new female PICU team is in place with enough time to train, form team bonds and prepare. So you can all make a profound difference to patient outcomes from day one.

We also offer ongoing professional development to help you adapt and progress your career, including bespoke training and a comprehensive induction program.

All jobs based at our Dartford unit come with a High Cost Area Supplement: 5% of basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £1303 per year and a maximum payment of £2198 per year (the agreed annual amount will be divided into 12 equal amounts and paid monthly). The salary listed is inclusive of the High-Cost Area Allowance.