Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond. We are committed to providing high-quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for the care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission rates our services as ‘good’. We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development. The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen, and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special. As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

We are looking for highly motivated individuals to join our team as Qualified Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners with Secondary Care Psychological Therapies and our Lambeth Living Well Centres. This is an exciting role created by NHS England and Improvement to support the transformation of adult community mental health services. This role will contribute to ensuring adults with severe mental health problems have greater access to psychologically informed interventions. We are committed to developing a team that is fully representative of the communities that we serve.

Main duties of the job

As a Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner, you will work under supervision as part of a dynamic mental health team delivering psychologically informed interventions and supporting adults to receive the right care. You will need to have flexibility and adaptability and a passion for working with adults with severe mental health problems. As a qualified MHWP, you will continue to develop knowledge and practice skills to employ wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions for serious mental health problems for adults individually and in groups, as well as support their families and carers. You will take a lead role in integrated work within our Living Well Centres, including joint formulation, training, and consultation. You will hold an individual guided self-help caseload within the Living Well Centre team and a separate role within SCPT in the first tier of our Complex Emotional Needs pathway.

Working for our organisation

The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000 has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing, and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average. Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people’s strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, coordinate and deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.

The Trust

The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions, and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will:

• Work in an adult community mental health service (partly within the Living Well Centre Short Term Support Team and partly with the Secondary Care Psychological Therapies pathway)
• Develop and practice psychologically-informed interventions under supervision, working directly with adults in the community
• Support collaborative care planning, alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team
• Work closely alongside a team of mental health professionals to deliver a set of brief wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions - not therapy - for example: Behavioural Activation and Graded Exposure using the “GOALS” programme, Problem-solving, Improving sleep, Recognising and managing emotions, Guided self-help for bulimia and binge-eating, Confidence building, Support with medicines management

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will be required to:

• Have experience of work interacting with the public, working as part of a team, analysing complex information, and communicating effectively
• Demonstrate the ability to establish and maintain empathic, supportive relationships with people in significant distress, their families, and carers
• Work within the limits of their experience and assessed competence for their role
• Deliver a set of wellbeing-focused psychologically-informed interventions, aligned to cognitive-behavioural principles, based on the best evidence available, that address problems often experienced by people with severe mental health problems
• Work within the limits of level of training and experience as a developing practitioner, taking on clinical practice appropriate to assessed levels of competence
• Work under supervision from a suitably qualified professional to provide high-quality collaborative care planning as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, with a level of autonomy matched to level of demonstrated competence

Person specification

Qualifications

• A graduate certificate (Level 6) or postgraduate certificate (Level 7) delivering the national curriculum for Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners (Adult Specialist Mental Health)
• Any training relevant to the service user group

Experience

• Experience of working with people with mental health needs gained through a graduate certificate or postgraduate certificate training with significant supervised practice
• Experience running groups/activities
• Experience working as part of a team
• Experience of being supervised
• Experience of analysing and communicating complex information verbally and in writing
• Lived experience of mental health issues/difficulties

Knowledge and Skills

• Able to establish and maintain empathic, supportive relationships with people in significant distress or who are cognitively impaired, their families, and carers
• Able to receive, understand and communicate confidential client information of a sensitive and often complex nature, including discussing care with family members within boundaries of confidentiality
• Able to communicate in a sensitive and reassuring manner, with empathy, and where appropriate reassurance
• Able to make good use of clinical supervision in a group and/or individual format
• Able to assist in assessment and observation activities related to individual’s health and wellbeing, arriving at judgments about how to respond within the care plan

The Trust is committed to providing services that embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, welcoming applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect, and dignity.

Please note: All applications for this post will need to be made online. Read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria. The closing date listed is a guide only and the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible. Once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you have not heard from us within three weeks from the closing date, your application has not been successful. Priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees. If you are successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process. We are a smoke-free Trust. SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe.