Patient Support Specialist in Newcastle upon Tyne

Reporting to: Patient Support Team Lead

Remuneration: £28,000 per annum

Contract Type: Permanent/ Full time - 40 hours per week

Location: Psychiatry UK Patient Help & Support Centre – Newcastle, UK

Closing Date for applications: Tuesday 22nd September

About Us:

Psychiatry UK is the UK’s leading provider of digital psychiatry services, working both privately and with the NHS to support children, teenagers and adults with expert, patient-centred care. A career with Psychiatry UK allows you to expand your knowledge, enhance your skills, and gain valuable life experience—all while enjoying the flexibility of a remote full-time role. As part of a leading online mental health service, you'll collaborate with innovative, forward-thinking professionals in a dynamic, multidisciplinary team committed to making a real difference.

The Patient Support Specialist is the first point of contact for individuals seeking information, guidance, and support relating to ADHD and Autism services. This role is pivotal in creating a welcoming, neurodiverse-friendly experience, providing personalised advice and support with empathy, professionalism, and emotional intelligence.

As a trusted representative of the organisation, the Patient Support Specialist will act as the primary contact for patients, their families, representatives, and members of the public. The role involves managing enquiries and requests for information across multiple channels, including telephone, email, written correspondence, online feedback forms, and face-to-face interactions.

Our Patient Support Specialists possess excellent listening and communication skills, enabling them to understand and respond effectively to a wide range of questions, concerns, and requests. Working in a fast-paced and patient-focused environment, the Patient Support Specialist will play a key role in ensuring that every interaction is handled with compassion, accuracy, and a commitment to delivering an outstanding patient experience.

As our Patient Support Specialist, you will:

• Handle inbound and outbound support calls and live chats with empathy and professionalism
• Resolve patients concerns quickly and effectively and negotiate solutions to ensure practical and appropriate advice and support is given.
• Provide informed guidance around assessments, services and resources
• Accurately record conversations and escalate safeguarding or complex complaints when needed
• Signpost to the complaints process if appropriate to do so
• Feedback to the pathway and clinical leads to help promote improved outcomes for patients and carers.
• Contribute to improving processes based on neurodiversity best practices
• Plan and prioritise own workload to ensure that tasks are met, consideration given to issues arising and responding to shifting priorities appropriately.
• Build and maintain good relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff across the organisation to help resolve patients concerns quickly and efficiently, ensure they receive practical advice and support in a sensitive, appropriate and effective way.
• Take a proactive approach to quality improvement so that emerging issues are addressed and managed and there is a customer focussed inclusive approach.
• Actively participate in regular supervision with line manager and the PUK PDR process for maintaining and developing personal skills and meeting agreed objectives.
• The post holder will attend online training as relevant to the post including mandatory training courses i.e. Information Governance, safeguarding, Health and Safety courses etc

To succeed as our Patient Support Specialist, you will be:

• A compassionate and resilient individual with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, able to build rapport with a wide range of people.
• You listen actively, communicate clearly both verbally and in writing, and remain calm, empathetic, and non-judgemental when supporting distressed patients, relatives, or members of the public.
• You work collaboratively within a team, demonstrate sound judgement when handling sensitive enquiries, and understand the importance of confidentiality and professionalism when managing personal information.
• Organised and adaptable, you can prioritise competing demands, work flexibly in a busy environment, and are motivated by the opportunity to contribute to a purpose-led organisation that makes a meaningful difference.

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Experience working in Mental Health, Education, Care, Healthcare, or a customer support environment.
• High standard of written and spoken English.
• Good IT and computer literacy skills.
• Excellent and accurate data entry skills.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to identify key facts from large amounts of information.
• Experience researching, interpreting, and providing information and advice to patients or members of the public.
• Ability to manage and prioritise workload effectively while maintaining attention to detail.
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

Desirable Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• NVQ level 2/3 in Health and Social Care or similar qualification
• Knowledge of SEND pathways or EHCP processes
• Previous work with neurodivergent clients
• Good negotiation and conflict resolution skills to manage and de-escalate potentially difficult/contentious situations
• A good understanding of ADHD, Autism or wider Neurodiversity experiences
• Ability to prepare and present complex information
• Experience of managing day to day routines associated with activities that have statutory or other deadlines

Psychiatry UK: Supporting You

We want you to enjoy your work while feeling healthy, happy, and appreciated. That’s why we’ve created a benefits package designed with you in mind. You’ll have access to a range of wellbeing perks, including a Health Cash Plan, Well Hub Subscription, access to an Employee Assistance Programme, Annual Volunteering Day, Enhanced Sickness and Family Leave pay, Length of Service Bonus, Work from Home allowance and Pension options. At Psychiatry UK, we care about what matters to you.

Recruitment Process

At Psychiatry UK, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. Our process includes:

• Application
• Profile review
• Screening conversation
• Competency based interview(s)

If at any point you require any reasonable adjustments —such as additional time, assistive technology, or an alternative format for materials—please let us know. We are happy to accommodate your needs to ensure you have a fair and comfortable experience.

If this opportunity excites you, why not apply today? We review applications as they come in and may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of interest. To ensure you don’t miss out, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.