Primary Care Mental Health Recovery Worker

A fantastic opportunity has arisen to join a GP service as a Support Worker with experience and interest in supporting people with mental health problems, and to join the Primary Care Plus service in Wandsworth, Putney & Roehampton and Battersea area.

The team will facilitate successful step down from secondary community mental health Teams (CMHTs) or Recovery Support Teams (RSTs), to General Practitioners (GPs), and Primary Care services. The Primary Care Plus service provides an enhanced level of primary care support to patients (18yrs +) with serious mental illness operating flexibly as both a step-up and step-down model. Service users include those stepped down from South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWL) to primary care and those who are appropriate to step up from a GP practice (Serious Mental Illness) SMI Register. People aged 18 years onwards would access the service and would serve those with a diagnosis of stable schizophrenia and psychosis, bipolar disorder, personality disorder and complex anxiety and depression (typically mental health clusters 11, 8, 5 and 7). The service is not aimed at people with mild to moderate anxiety and depression (clusters 1-4) as these are usually served by IAPT services.

As Recovery Support worker you will work with mental health service users, their carers and other agencies to:

• Work in conjunction with team members of all disciplines to provide a seamless, safe and comprehensive service.
• Assist in supporting early intervention with primary care, promote self-management through the ‘Wellness Plan’ for service-users on the Serious Mental Illness (SMI) register, and provide greater integration with community support services.
• Provide regular and effective mental health/physical health reviews to SMI service-users.
• Help with the improvement of pathways between primary and secondary care (and vice-versa) to ensure that they are a key element of the service.
• Champion the Trust values within the team.
• Work at all times to promote the safety and the well-being of service users and their families/carers.
• Build trusting and collaborative relationships with service users.
• Understand what is important to the service user in their life.
• Help and support the service user to develop and set goals with what is important to them.
• Help them to feel hopeful about the things that are important to them.
• Provide support and advice with being involved in their community – for example housing, employment, education, welfare benefits, social life and peer networks.
• Help service users to feel in control of their life including self-management tools and techniques.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’. This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti-racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do. We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Joseph Manu Job title: Team Manager Email address: joseph.manu@swlstg.nhs.uk Telephone number: 07971669791