Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

North West Borough Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Knowsley; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 38,000; Part time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking enthusiastic Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners to deliver low intensity cognitive behavioural therapy for adults with mild to moderate depression and anxiety within primary care settings.

You will operate with an inclusive values base, maintain robust clinical records, and contribute to service transformation initiatives while working flexibly to meet patient needs.

Qualifications

• Having passed an accredited course and being specifically qualified as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner.
• Registration with BABCP or BPS within 12 months for newly qualified staff.
• Knowledge of primary care mental health interventions and self-help materials.

Responsibilities

• Deliver low intensity CBT interventions for mild to moderate anxiety and depression.
• Assess referrals and plan stepped care in collaboration with the team.
• Maintain records and contribute to data collection and reporting.
• Facilitate group or course delivery for patients or community members.

Skills

Excellent communication

Computer literate

Primary care experience

Willingness to learn cCBT tools

Education

PGCert in Primary Care Mental Health Practice

Registration with BABCP or BPS

Tools

SilverCloud

Job description

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

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Job overview

We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners to join our dynamic and innovative service that delivers psychological interventions for people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety related disorders. You will be familiar with primary care psychological services, and will deliver low intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based treatment.

Important Note: You MUST hold a recognised Post Graduate Certificate / qualification which demonstrates that you are specifically trained to work as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner OR be toward the end of studying for this qualification, and expect to complete this within 3 months. You should only apply if you have undergone / are completing training for a specific PWP role.

Owing to National requirements around Psychological Well Being Practitioner registration, qualified PWPs will need to have registration in place or newly qualified staff to achieve this within 6 months of qualifying.

Main duties of the job

You must also be able to demonstrate high levels of written and verbal communication; be computer literate and be able to demonstrate good therapeutic relationships with people.

You will have experience of working in primary care and community settings and be able to work on your own initiative.

You should have a real interest in helping people with anxiety and depression to achieve a level of recovery which will improve their overall wellbeing and day to day life.

Ideally, you will also be experienced in facilitating courses/workshops for patients and/or community members (or have a willingness to get involved in the delivery of groups) and experience of delivering cCBT via SilverCloud (or willingness to learn).

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Accept referrals via agreed protocols within the service.
• Assess and support people with a common mental health problem in the self-management of their recovery.
• Undertake patient-centred interviews which identify areas where the person wishes to see change and/or recovery and make an accurate assessment of risk to self and others.
• Make decisions on suitability of new referrals, adhering to the department's referral protocols, refers unsuitable clients on to the relevant service or back to the referral agent as necessary or steps-up the person's treatment to high intensity psychological therapy.
• Provide a range of information and support for evidence based high-volume low intensity psychological treatments. This may include guided self-help computerised CBT, information about pharmacological treatments. This work may be face to face, telephone or via other media.
• Educate and involve family members and others in treatment as necessary.
• Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the overall number of client contacts offered, and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or clients in treatment, where appropriate.
• Complete all requirements relating to data collection within the service.
• Keep coherent records of all clinical activity in line with service protocols and use these records and clinical outcome data in clinical decision making.
• Work closely with other members of the team ensuring appropriate step-up and step-down arrangements are in place to maintain a stepped care approach.
• Assess and integrate issues surrounding work and employment into the overall therapy process.
• Operate at all times from an inclusive values base which promotes recovery and recognises and respects diversity.

Person specification

Qualification

Essential criteria

• Having passed an accredited course and being specifically qualified as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner - i.e., PGCert in Primary Care Mental Health Practice / PGCert Low Intensity CBT Practitioner
• Registration with either the BABCP or the BPS (or for newly qualified/appointed staff, to achieve this within 12 months)

Desirable criteria

• Training in nursing, social work, occupational therapy, arts therapy or within a psychological therapy
• Health or Social Care related degree

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to evaluate and integrate training into practice
• Computer literate
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including telephone skills
• High level of enthusiasm and motivation
• Advanced communication skills
• Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships
• Ability to use clinical supervision and personal development positively and effectively
• Ability to work under pressure
• Regard for others and respect for individual rights of autonomy and confidentiality
• Ability to be self reflective, whilst working with service users, in own personal and professional development and in supervision
• Ability to manage own workload and time
• Ability to demonstrate high standards in written communication
• Able to write clear reports and letters
• Ability to evaluate and put in place the effect of training
• Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients

Desirable criteria

• Car driver and / or ability and willingness to travel to locations throughout the Mersey Care footprint
• Fluent in community languages other than English

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety and depression and how it may present in Primary Care
• Ability to manage own workload and time
• Ability to demonstrate high standards in written communication
• Able to write clear reports and lettersAbility to evaluate and put in place the effect of training
• Computer literate

Desirable criteria

• Demonstrates a knowledge of the issues surrounding work and the impact it can have on mental health
• Knowledge of self-help materials for managing common mental health problems
• Knowledge of medication used in anxiety and depression and other common mental health problems
• Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post

Experience

Essential criteria

• Proven relevant experience of working with people with common mental health problems
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including telephone skills
• Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients

Desirable criteria

• Proven relevant experience of working in Primary Care Services
• Proven relevant experience of working in a service where agreed targets in place demonstrating clinical outcomes
• Proven relevant experience of working in the local community

Values

Essential criteria

• Continuous improvement - committed to making improvements to our services for the benefit of all
• Accountability - taking ownership to anticipate, develop and deliver high quality care
• Respect - how we treat others in an inclusive and supportive way
• Enthusiasm - demonstrate our passion and pride for what we do and how we do it
• Support - actively supporting others with compassion and courage

Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust's guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.

Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email