Supportive Care Therapist in Yeovil

Are you passionate about supporting people through some of life's most difficult moments? Do you believe in compassionate, holistic care for patients and families? Are you a qualified counsellor, therapist or systemic practitioner? If so, we'd love you to join our Supportive Care team here at St Margaret's Hospice.

As a Supportive Care Therapist, you will deliver safe and effective therapeutic support to patients and their families, including children and young people. You'll play a vital role in helping people cope with life-limiting illness, loss, and bereavement, providing evidence-based therapeutic support.

Salary: £27101.01 per annum

Working pattern: Part time (30 hours per week)

Contract: Fixed term to cover maternity leave

This cross-county role will be based in our Taunton and Yeovil Hospice sites and will see clients as out-patients, in their own homes and at other community venues.

Main duties of the job:

• Providing holistic therapeutic support to patients, families and carers.
• Supporting triage and signposting to ensure people receive the right level of psychological care.
• Assess the needs and provide safe, effective, evidence-based support to adults, children, and young people.
• Identifying vulnerable or at risk clients and follow safeguarding procedures.
• Collaborating with colleagues across the hospice and external agencies.
• Facilitating group work as needed for both adults and young people.

About us:

You won’t just be joining a fantastic team; you’ll be part of a welcoming, community-minded charity. Our mission is to provide excellent specialist palliative care for patients and support to their families. If you speak to any of our staff or volunteers, they will tell you how the patient is at the heart of everything they do. So, if you’re looking for a role where you can really make a difference, working as part of a supportive team, we could be a perfect match.

Job responsibilities:

• Deliver safe and effective therapeutic support to patients and families, including children and young people.
• Provide evidenced based, therapeutic support to families, children and young people who have been, or are about to be bereaved of someone significant to them.
• Work within evidence-based principles to assess the needs and provide support to bereaved relatives and carers.
• Maintain a high level of expertise and credibility within the multidisciplinary team (MDT), including the management of own caseload.
• Work closely with all members of the Hospice team to ensure compliance with legislation and expected quality standards.
• Establish and maintain relationships with relevant external organisations to promote the continued delivery of therapeutic care for Hospice patients and their families/friends in all settings.
• Provide support to other areas within the Supportive Care Services team as needed, including family patient support and bereavement.

Clinical Practice:

• Provide a high standard of holistic counselling to patients and families/carers using hospice services.
• Support the triage role for psychological therapies, balancing best fit approach to psychological care and best use of limited resources.
• Recognise at risk or vulnerable clients and signpost appropriately to other agencies in accordance with safeguarding procedures.
• Support the development and delivery of therapeutic practices within the team.
• Encourage contact from external agencies to access specialist advice in situations where psychological and emotional difficulties occur within a palliative care context.
• Provide a timely assessment and triage for potential service users with appropriate signposting to relevant interventions/services.
• Support the principle and practice of collaborative multi-professional working.
• Liaise with the community and inpatient Multidisciplinary Teams to identify and support appropriate referrals.
• Provide a timely and responsive pre and post bereavement service for families, individuals, children and young people.
• Support families, children and young people to engage in healthy and open communication about their loss.
• Liaise with relevant external agencies regarding potential family support needs of clients.
• Assess the needs of bereaved relatives and provide bereavement support as required.
• Make appropriate referrals to other professionals and work collaboratively with a wide range of local, regional and national services.
• With line manager, actively identify and support residential and non-residential group work for children and young persons in collaboration with other voluntary sector groups, if appropriate.
• Support to facilitate group work for adults pre and post bereavement as required.
• Maintain own professional standards and attend regular clinical supervision and professional CPD.
• Maintain professional membership of a governing body such as BACP, NCS, UKCP or other.
• Demonstrate personal effective time management and appropriate, responsive prioritisation to meet ever-changing service demands.

Communication and people skills:

• Record contemporaneous and accurate data on the electronic record system in accordance with St Margaret's guidance and within data protection policies.
• Responsible for ensuring high quality data collection and record keeping for psychological therapies.
• Promote and practice excellent and effective communication skills with patients, families and members of the wider MDT.
• Vary the style and level of communication with all people, respecting their differing levels of understanding.
• Use the most appropriate and agreed means of communication, to provide individual, family and group support or counselling, ensuring that confidentiality is maintained.
• Work with other senior colleagues to ensure effective communication channels and relationships exist within the team and communicate appropriately with internal colleagues and external agencies about service developments.
• Demonstrate appropriate conflict management skills which are effective and highly sensitive in managing individuals and situations.
• Express ideas clearly through oral or written communication.
• Establish and maintain effective collaboration with other providers and relevant external organisations.

Quality, Research, Audit and Development:

• Participate and contribute to audit and research as agreed.
• Participate in the planning and undertaking of patient and carer feedback.
• Foster an environment where research and audit is welcomed.
• Contribute to the service delivery plan for Therapies and Supportive Care Services.
• Keep abreast of national and local changes to practice and legislation to ensure that the service reflects best practice.

Education and Training:

• Support the planning and provision of education and training to staff in the hospice in relation to psychological care and signpost staff to appropriate agencies.
• As part of the supportive care team, provide the wider MDT with an understanding of the psychological and spiritual impact of terminal illness, loss and bereavement on people, including those from diverse and disadvantaged communities.
• Identify own learning needs, liaising with line manager and Education Department, attending training courses and study days as appropriate.
• Participate in the development and delivery of internal and external educational programs.
• Help to create a positive learning environment and in partnership with the team provide and deliver learning opportunities for other health and social care workers.

Person Specification:

• Qualified to practice as a counsellor/therapist, systemic practitioner or equivalent.
• Current relevant professional registration/accreditation.
• Evidence of ongoing professional development.
• Computer literacy with knowledge of Windows based applications.
• Post Qualifying Diploma or equivalent in counselling children and young people.
• Excellent organisational skills to effectively manage workload.
• Understanding of loss and grief and its impact on individuals and families and their social networks.
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a Multi-Disciplinary Team.
• Experience of working with volunteers.
• Ability to make decisions, organise, prioritise and meet deadlines.
• Maintenance of statistical data.
• Experience of working with bereavement.
• Demonstrable commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and equal opportunities.
• Experience of participation in audit or research.
• Experience of having worked in a Specialist Palliative Care setting.
• Experience of working therapeutically with families and children in complex situations and the delivery of evidenced based interventions.

Other Requirements:

• Must have ability to travel by car across the whole County including rural communities.
• Ability to work varied hours including weekends, bank holidays and some evenings.
• This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.