Perinatal Peer Support Worker

West London NHS Trust; London Borough of Hounslow; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

West London NHS Trust is seeking a motivated Peer Support Worker to join a tri-borough perinatal mental health service. The role focuses on recovery, relationship-building, and helping women and families access resources and activities within the Trust and community.

The post offers ongoing training and development within the PSW role, with responsibilities across Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow. A compassionate, patient-centred approach is essential.

Qualifications

• Lived experience of mental health challenges is valued.
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Providing recovery focussed support to service users.
• Establish supportive and respectful relationships with people using mental health services.
• Help service users to complete recovery plans, identifying goals and support needed.
• Ensure interactions are sensitive to service users' ethnic, cultural and social background.
• Promote social inclusion and engagement.
• Share ideas about recovery drawing on personal experiences and interventions.
• Model personal responsibility, self-awareness, self-belief, self-advocacy and hopefulness.
• Sign-post to resources and activities within the Trust and the community.
• Accompany service users to appointments/meetings/activities aligned to recovery goals.
• Involved in ongoing development of the PSW training programme and evaluation.
• Maintain adequate case records and report concerns promptly.

Job description

The Tri-borough Perinatal Mental Health Service is looking for a motivated and passionate Peer Support Worker to join us. This is an innovative award winning service delivering new models of specialist care within West London NHS Trust.

The position will be in the borough of Hounslow, however the successful candidate will be asked to work across the tri-borough service; Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow who are based at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Maternity Hospital, Trust headquarters and Hounslow House.

This would be an exciting opportunity for a person with lived experience of Perinatal Mental Health to join our service. You will be a member of the multi-disciplinary team, facilitating client-centred activities for our women and their families.

We expect through sharing aspects of your own lived experience of mental health challenges and of accessing services, that you as Peer Support Workers will inspire hope and the belief that recovery is possible in others.We would support the successful candidate with an ongoing training programme to facilitate their development within the post.

Main duties of the job

• Providing recovery focussed support to service users
• To establish supportive and respectful relationships with people using mental health services.
• To help service users to complete recovery plans, incorporating identification of users own goals and support needed to achieve them.
• To ensure that interactions are sensitive and responsive to the service users' ethnic, cultural and social background, using a range of communication and engagement skills as appropriate to the context.
• To promote social inclusion and engagement.
• To share ideas about ways of achieving and developing recovery, drawing on personal experiences and a range of interventions.
• To model personal responsibility, self-awareness, self-belief, self-advocacy and hopefulness.
• To sign-post to various resources, opportunities and activities within the Trust and the community to promote choice and informed decision making.
• To accompany service users to appointments/meetings/activities of their choice and performing a range of practical tasks, aligned to recovery goals.
• To be actively involved in the continued development of the PSW training programme and in the ongoing evaluation of the PSW role.
• To maintain adequate case records in accordance with Trust policy, and to ensure that concerns are reported to relevant professionals and documented promptly.

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

The Trust is rated as 'Good' overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as 'Outstanding'.

The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.