Support Worker (EDIP) with Special Interest in Research

The Eating Disorders Intensive Pathway (EDIP) Support Worker is a vital member of the multidisciplinary team, providing practical and therapeutic community-based support to young people with severe eating disorders and their families. The role involves meal support, monitoring physical health, and empowering families to actively manage recovery at home as an alternative to inpatient care.
Additionally, the Support Worker will dedicate one day per week as a Research Assistant, contributing to eating disorder-related research activities., + Provide interventions in the community near where CYP live
+ Provide interventions that help CYP achieve safe nutritional and hydration intake, including NG feeding support if necessary
+ Provide intensive family support (including best practice interventions such as the Maudsley Family Intensive Group Model)
+ Empower families and parents to actively support CYP's recovery
+ Support CYP's weight restoration and resumption of control over eating
+ Increase CYP autonomy to maintain a healthy weight and positive body image
+ Identify emotional triggers for eating disorders and provide appropriate psychosocial interventions
+ Work collaboratively with community hospital-at-home paediatric and acute paediatric services, supporting feeding when needed
+ Establish effective pathway interfaces with community services, inpatient services, and social services
+ Assist with participant recruitment and ensure their comfort and readiness to engage with the research.
+ Support the team by engaging with participants, gathering relevant information, and conducting structured interviews.
+ Participate in data analysis and contribute to summarising key findings.
+ Collaborate in preparing progress updates and disseminating research outcomes to stakeholders.
+ Support transition planning into adult services when required, · Undertake supervised clinical work supporting children and young people toward their recovery goals.
· Offer home, clinic-based, and hospital-based meal support for young people with eating disorders, modeling appropriate support for parents/carers.
· Assist service users in identifying their strengths, personal interests, and recovery goals while promoting acceptance and respect for their personal beliefs, uniqueness, and identity.
· Promote recovery by supporting young people in accessing community activities, education, and support networks.
· Assist, under supervision, with physical health monitoring of young people on the CEDS Intensive Pathway.
· Assist, under supervision, with the delivery of NG feeding in the community where appropriate (non-restrained).
· Support the team in intensive outreach work to manage risk and provide an alternative to hospital admission for severely unwell young people.
· Provide psychosocial interventions including distress tolerance, emotion regulation (DBT techniques), basic CBT strategies, psycho-education, motivational exercises, distraction activities, symptom management, problem-solving skills, and support for young people with learning disabilities.
· Support the development and delivery of community-based phlebotomy services.
· Assess, plan, implement, and evaluate patient care plans related to physical health needs, aligned with the overall CEDS care plan.
· Manage challenging, distressing, and sensitive situations with therapeutic skills to engage patients and families safely and effectively.
· Support research participants (young people and families) involved in eating disorder-related studies by providing verbal and written information and ongoing support throughout their research involvement.
· Assist in participant recruitment, gaining informed consent, and follow-up communication (calls/emails), ensuring the safety and wellbeing of participants.
Making Things Better
Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don't stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.
We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.
Our Community
We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.
Aiming High
We were rated 'Outstanding' by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated 'Outstanding' again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ's Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.
Staff and Service Users United
We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.
We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.
Diversity
ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.
Other reasons to apply
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's job share, part time or another flexible pattern.
As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations., Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.