Mental Health Hospital Link Worker

Job Title Mental Health Hospital Link Worker

Service/Department Mental Health Hospital Link Service

Salary £25,250 FTE

Hours 22.5 hours per week (Working hours 13:30-21:30)

Base Colchester

Responsible to Service Manager

Accountable to Therapeutic Lead

Job Summary:

Based in the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) and Emergency Department (ED) at Colchester General Hospital the Link Worker will be a non-clinical point of contact for individuals presenting at hospital with intense emotional distress.

Working closely with the UTC Triage Team the Link Worker will offer first line empathic, person centred support to people experiencing low level mental health concerns, and then refer to the Volunteer Link Worker team for short term practical and emotional support, or refer / signpost to North East Essex (NEE) Sanctuary and other services as appropriate.

Key Responsibilities:

• Offer person centred, empathic support to individuals experiencing emotional and mental health distress within the UTC and Emergency Department.
• Actively de-escalate crisis situations in a high pressure environment. Establishing rapport with individuals and clearly identifying immediate support needs.
• Liaise closely with the hospital triage team and other clinical teams within Colchester General Hospital.
• To develop and maintain excellent relationship with the hospital teams, Link Volunteers, NEE Sanctuary and other partnerships.
• Develop positive and supportive relationships with individuals, maintaining professional boundaries.
• Assist individuals to develop self-management strategies and to make the best use of the local resources around them.
• Support and interact with colleagues, sharing information and updates on services and regulations, building links within the community.
• Ensure documentation is maintained in a timely and professional manner.
• Communicate with the Service Manager and Therapeutic Lead to ensure effective service delivery, in line with policies and procedures.
• Encourage and listen to the views of people accessing the service and use case studies to reflect the support provided to the Therapeutic Lead, along with the first hand feedback.
• Work positively with multi-disciplinary team (MDT) members ensuring that relevant information is passed on to the team, especially regarding risk.
• Manage own time and workload effectively, and maintain own wellbeing
• Attend and actively participate in line management one to ones and relevant meetings, as necessary.
• Attend all mandatory and essential training as per Mid & North East Essex Mind Policy.
• Work within the Values, policies and procedures of Mid and North East Essex Mind.
• Perform all other duties as may reasonably be expected of your operational line manager.

Organisational values: Post-holders should be able to demonstrate the following:

Value Phrase

Listening We listen to the needs of our wider community and each other – actively engaging, learning and sharing every day

Co-Producing We believe that the people affected by a service are best placed to help design it and reach collective outcomes together

Trusted We build trust in our communities by consistently delivering high quality services and being honest in everything we do

Inclusive We develop inclusive services and support that respect the diversity and dignity of everyone in our communities

Innovative We explore new ideas and ways of working to build a culture that embraces innovation, excellence and creative solutions

Supportive We foster a culture of empathy, respect and open communication to support our communities and each other

Person Specification

POST: Mental Health Hospital Link Worker

Category Essential Desirable

• Good standard of education. • Psychology Degree or equivalent.
• Qualified to Level 3 in Health/Social • Health and Social Care Level 3
• Education & Care or a relevant subject. • Risk assessment training.
• Qualifications • Mental health first aid training.
• Minimum two years’ experience of • Experiencing of working within an
• working in the field of mental health or NHS environment.
• other comparable field. • Experience of working within UTC /
• Experience of supporting people ED.
• experiencing mental health distress.
• Experience of effective partnership
• working.
• Experience 6. Experience of working autonomously
• and managing own workload.
• Experience of supporting and working
• as part of a team.
• Working knowledge and experience of • Knowledge of interventions
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults. available and making appropriate
• 9. Ability to demonstrate resilience to referrals dependant on individual
• work with difficult or complex situations need.
• with clients. • Knowledge of community services
• 10. Ability to network for the benefit of the and agencies.
• client and service delivery. • Knowledge of Data Protection Act.
• 11. Ability to communicate and retain
• Skills, Abilities & relationships with clients, their
• Knowledge family/friends.
• 12. Ability to communicate with different
• range of cognitive abilities e.g. learning
• difficulties, communication issues.
• 13. Proficient in the use of Microsoft
• Outlook and Microsoft Word and
• familiar with relevant database
• management systems.
• 14. Ability to work flexibly.
• 15. Understanding of and commitment to
• Organisation values.
• 16. Empathic and compassionate.
• 17. Flexible, creative and responsive
• Personal approach.
• Characteristics
• Car driver or ability to travel
• independently around Mid and North
• Essex Mind sites.