Peer Support Worker / Carer Peer Support Worker

Peer Support Workers for the Older Adults Community Mental Health Services have experience of living with mental distress or supporting a loved one with mental health challenges and are successfully managing their own recovery and wellbeing. The aim of the role is to support other individuals experiencing mental distress or who are caring for loved ones.
The role is to complement the support given by healthcare professionals to inspire hope and empower people to reach their own individual recovery goals and make sense of their personal recovery journey.
You do not need to have prior peer support experience or training to apply for this role, however you will be expected to attend a peer support worker course if you have not undertaken prior training.
Our experience is that the people most likely to be invited to interview are those who refer to the points on the person specification in their supporting statement., The Peer Support/Carer Peer Support Worker is a new key role in the Older Adults Service.
They collaborate with the clinical staff, other practitioners and support workers to assist in improving the wellbeing of service users who use NHFT 'Older Adults' services and their carers/relatives. This service is for people who are over 65 and experiencing mental health problems including dementia. The role will be based in community settings in the Kettering/Corby and Northampton areas.
The aim of the Peer Support role is to:
· Support service users directly including one-one or in small groups.
· Support service users with their integration into the community.
· Initiate, establish and maintain relationships with service users in a variety of settings (including, inpatients, homes, NHFT sites and in the community)
· Share and discuss common experiences with service users in an appropriate manner.
· Work under the direction and leadership of registered professionals, undertaking duties using a recovery focus
· Support people with their emotional, personal, and physical needs.
· Develop a trusting and mutually beneficial rapport with service users
· Act as a coach and mentor to service users by providing information about support and services available to them within NHFT and the local community.
· Develop links across other organisations that support service users.
· Identify and strengthen service user partnerships with the Older Adult's teams to improve the support they receive.
· Support service users with transitions between services.
· Involvement in developing and facilitating service user groups.
· Actively seek to understand and communicate service user views and needs to internal and external stakeholders in a variety of settings.
· Participate in professional supervision and training opportunities.
· Contribute a service user perspective for Recovery College Courses
· Contribute to service development, delivery of Peer Support training and the promotion of Peer Support.
· Represent the service user's voice at leadership meetings
· Promote principles of peer supported recovery and self-managed care
· Report regularly to the Supervisor and wider team, in meetings and reviews, progress of the service users you are working with.
· Provide advice and facilitate service user participation in Service User Involvement and Co-production activities.
· To use appropriate skills to engage with services users, e.g asking open ended questions, validating strengths and experiences and using empowering language.
· To support and enable service users to resolve conflicts and regain hope, enjoyment and control over their own lives based on the principles of peer supported recovery.
· To ensure that up to date written and electronic records and activity data are maintained in accordance with NHFT standards.
The aim of the Carer Peer Support role is to:
· Support families and carers directly including one-one, in small family groups and wider carer groups.
· Initiate, establish and maintain relationships with families and carers in a variety of settings
· Share and discuss common experiences with families and carers in an appropriate manner.
· Work under the direction and leadership of registered professionals, undertaking duties using a recovery focus
· Support people with their emotional, personal and physical needs.
· Develop a trusting and mutually beneficial rapport with families and carers
· Act as a coach and mentor to families and carers by providing information about support and services available to them within NHFT and the local community.
· Develop links across other organisations that support carers such as 'Northamptonshire Carers'.
· Identify and strengthen families' and carers partnerships with the Older Adult's services to improve the support they receive.
· Involvement in developing and facilitating a Families and Carers Network.
· Actively seek to understand, communicate, and support families' and carers views and needs to internal and external stakeholders in a variety of settings.
· Participate in professional supervision and training opportunities.
· Contribute a carer's perspective for Recovery College Courses
· Contribute to service development, delivery of Peer Support training and the promotion of Peer Support.
· Represent the carer's voice at leadership meetings
· Promote principles of peer supported recovery and self-managed care
· Report regularly to the Supervisor and wider team, in meetings and reviews, progress of the clients you are working with.
· Provide advice and facilitate families' and carers' participation in Service User Involvement and Co-production activities.
· To use appropriate skills to engage with families and and carers, e.g asking open ended questions, validating strengths and experiences and using empowering language.
· To support and enable carers and families to resolve conflicts and regain hope, enjoyment and control over their own lives based on the principles of peer supported recovery.
· To ensure that up to date written and electronic records and activity data are maintained in accordance with NHFT standards.
Important Information
Applications will be transferred to the TRAC system, by completing an application you are giving authorisation for the transfer of your data. In submitting an application form, you authorise us to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process. Including factual reference, occupational health clearance and statutory and mandatory training records
Correspondence regarding your application will be sent to you via a TRAC system account.
Please submit your application as soon as possible; due to the high volumes of applications we receive we reserve the right to close any adverts before the closing date once we have received sufficient applications.
We are an equal opportunities employer, which aims to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons from all backgrounds.
At NHFT we support many of our colleagues to work flexibly and we will consider requests for flexible working from day one. For this role, we are open to discussing a range of options including flexible hours, agile/home working, compressed hours and part time hours. Please have a conversation with the recruiting manager about the flexibility you need and we will promise to explore what is possible with you.
Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria for the job will be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process please make the recruitment services team aware as soon as possible.
All posts that are engaged in a regulated activity will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and a DBS re-check on a three yearly basis whilst employed in such a role. Staff employed in these posts will therefore be asked to register with the DBS Automatic Update Service upon receipt of their DBS certificate and must update yearly , the annual fee will be reimbursed subject to Trust policy. For further information please visit: DBS Update Service: applicant guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Please note if a DBS is applicable for the position then a charge will be deducted from your first salary or upfront cost if a staff bank position.
Please note that all new starters to the trust are subject to a probationary period.

Do you have personal experience of living with mental health challenges?

Do you want to use this experience to help others in one of our two roles - 'Service User Peer Support Worker' or 'Carer Peer Support Worker'?
Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust are expanding their peer support service and there are two vacancies - one within each of our Corby/Kettering and Northampton services for either of these positions.
Peer support is when people use their own lived experiences to support others who are having similar experiences.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with personal experience of living with mental distress or supporting a loved one with mental health challenges to share their experience and support others., NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be 'outstanding' by supporting opportunity, innovation, development and growth.