Senior Support Time and Recovery (STR) worker

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South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

Are you passionate about improving the quality of care for people with dementia? Do you see challenging behaviour as a form of communication? Are you driven to understand and meet the unmet needs of people living with dementia?

If so, then this is the job for you. Our Support, Time and Recovery (STR) workers in the care home intervention teams play a key role in supporting care home staff to implement care plans and improve the way they communicate with and offer care to people living in care homes who display behaviours that challenge.

Previous NHS experience is not essential. What you do need is experience working in a residential care environment and an understanding of the multiple factors that can often be barriers to staff being able to meet a resident's needs in this setting. You need to be an excellent communicator and to be able to engage people at all levels, particularly service users who may struggle to communicate their needs, care home staff and members of the multidisciplinary team.

Please use the supporting information section of the application form to outline how you meet the essential criteria on the person specification

Main duties of the job

The role of the STR worker is to facilitate the personhood and wellbeing of clients under the care of the CCHIT. The post holder will work alongside the multi-disciplinary team focusing on the psychosocial domains of patients' care with care home staff. The post holder would be expected to have autonomous skills in developing positive relationships with care home colleagues, and to model and demonstrate genuine empathy with clients, care home staff, and carers to support care home residents who are living with behaviours that challenge in the context of dementia or other mental health conditions.

The post-holder will work closely with the multidisciplinary team in formulating, modelling and monitoring behavioural support plans and interventions to help care home staff care for their residents. The post-holder will provide practical and psychosocial support for a defined caseload of care home residents, including their paid carers in the care home, and unpaid carers (family and friends) in their wider social network.

The post holder will work alongside care home staff in a collaborative way for a defined period of time to implement interventions detailed in the CCHIT care plan. They will assist with upskilling care home staff in these interventions and increasing their ability to apply these more widely to the care of other residents within the setting.

Working for our organisation

The care home intervention teams work with people over the age of 65 (or those with younger onset dementia) who are resident in care homes, and who display challenging behaviour in the context of dementia or other mental health difficulties. The teams work on the basis that people's behaviour, even when challenging, can be understood, and this understanding often leads the way in identifying unmet needs and in developing good care planning and practice, involving the use of psychosocial interventions. The team is based at 50 Pampisford Road, CR8 2NE, Purley

The ability to travel around care homes in the borough of Croydon daily is essential for this role, although you do not need to be a driver, and many existing team members do use public transport.

The post holder will be well supported by both team-based supervision with the CCHIT team manager, and role-based group supervision alongside the two other STR workers working in the CHITs in the other SLaM boroughs.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both overviews please view the Job Description attachment with the job advert.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Level 3 certificate in Health and Social Care or equivalent

Desirable criteria

• Psychology degree or equivalent experience, or Evidence of continued academic development

Experience

Essential criteria

• Two years or more experience within a mental health setting (either NHS, social care or private setting)
• experience in working with older people, and those with cognitive impairment and dementia

Desirable criteria

• experience dealing with health acute psychiatric crises / care
• Experience of psychological formulation sessions

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of the principles of equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice in the provision of services
• Knowledge of the key principles of risk assessment and risk management
• Understanding of SMART goal setting

Desirable criteria

• Training in specific interventions for people with dementia
• Some knowledge of psycho- pharmacology intervention
• Some understanding of the needs of people with mental illness and personality disorder

Abilities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work with a wide variety of professionals and agencies
• Ability to work with carers and families and commitment to developing user focused services
• Good written and verbal communication and IT skills
• Ability to travel extensively within the community
• Ability to treat people with warmth, kindness, dignity and respect
• Ability to prioritise workload and carry out work efficiently and effectively
• Ability to work under times of change and pressure of work
• Ability to motivate clients who are difficult to engage and co-ordinate the support with fellow staff members
• Self-motivated and able to use supervision sessions effectively

Desirable criteria

• Ability to reflect positively on practice
• Motivated to participate in required training and development
• Willingness to work flexibly and adapt to changing priorities

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Person Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 584.5KB)
• SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)