Qualified Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) in Essex

Following on from the government's green paper Dec 2017 Transforming children and young people's mental health provision, Mind in West Essex has successfully implemented the Trailblazer programme, establishing a Children and Young People's (CYP) Mental Health Support Team. The CYP Mental Health Support Team works with children, young people and their families, experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues such as low mood and anxiety. The Mental Health Support Team works with educational settings to develop Mental Health Support Teams in Schools, the whole-school approach to mental health, and to strengthen the links between education, health services and families across West Essex.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will provide low intensity CBT based interventions in:

• Child Anxiety; working with parent/carer
• Challenging Behaviour; working with parent/carer
• Adolescent anxiety; direct work with young person
• Adolescent Low Mood; direct work with young person

• Emotional regulation for primary aged children
• Child Anxiety for parent/carers of primary aged children
• Challenging Behaviour for parent/carers of primary aged children
• A variety of topics for Secondary school / Further education students

Note, the above is subject to ongoing development. The post holder will work with children, young people and parents with different cultural backgrounds and ages, using interpreters when necessary and should be committed to equal opportunities.

Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people, with mild to moderate mental health problems, in an education setting. Helping children and young people within these settings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist service. Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify, and where appropriate, manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing. Working with and within educational environments to afford better access to specialist mental health services. Support educational establishments in developing a whole-school approach to mental health. Engage with partnership organisations and stakeholders in co-production.

About us

Mind in West Essex is a local, independent mental health charity. We affiliate to Mind (the National Association for Mental Health), a charity with which we share common values and principles. Our vision is for West Essex to be a place where people talk openly and positively about mental health, and where everyone gets the support and respect needed to live well. We embrace diversity and understand that being an inclusive organisation, recognising different perspectives, will enable us to provide excellent services. We are committed to ensuring all our employees are treated fairly and equitably at work and promoting equity in physical and mental health for all.

Job responsibilities

• Key Task Areas and Responsibilities:

• The successful post holder will;

• Be supervised and supported to assess and deliver outcome focused, evidence-based interventions in educational settings for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties through guided self-help.
• Have skills in supporting children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, their parents/carers, families and educators in the self-management of presenting difficulties.
• Demonstrate evidence-based skills under supervisory support of working in partnership with children, young people, their families and educators in the development of plans for the specific intervention and agreeing outcomes.
• Demonstrate the skills required in order to enable children and young people in education, and where appropriate parents/carers to collaborate and co-produce their own agreed plan of care.
• Show evidence in a variety of forms that at all times assessment and intervention is provided from an inclusive values base, which recognises and respects diversity.
• Discuss with supervisors and agree to accept appropriate referrals for children and young people in educational settings, according to agreed local and national referral routes, processes and procedures.
• Under supervision, show accurate assessments of risk to client self and others. Where risk is identified to implement appropriate procedures to maintain safety.
• Learn, understand, rationalise and adhere to the protocols within the educational service to which the post holder is attached.
• Engage along with more senior staff in the signposting of referrals for children and young people with more complex needs to the relevant service.
• Engage in robust managerial and clinical supervision, identifying the scope of practice of the individual post-holder within the role, and working safely within that scope.
• Practice a range of interventions related to provision of information and support for evidence-based psychological treatments.
• Practice, evidence, reflect on and demonstrate an ability to manage one's own caseload in conjunction with the requirements of the team.
• Attend multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings relating to referrals or children and young people in treatment, where appropriate, both for personal educational benefit in discussion with supervisors, or to provide direct assistance.
• Keep coherent records of all training and clinical activity in line with both health and education service protocols and use these records and outcome data to inform decision making.
• Complete all requirements relating to data collection.
• Show evidence of working within a collaborative approach, involving a range of relevant others when indicated.
• Specifically, work in collaboration with teachers and other educational staff, parents, children, young people and the wider community to enhance and broaden access to mental health services.
• Contribute to the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials and go on to develop further such materials as falls within own degree of competence.
• Develop and maintain an up to date awareness of the entire Mind in West Essex offer.