Mental Health Adviser

Newcastle University; Newcastle; Hybrid; ZAR 47 000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent higher education institution in KwaZulu-Natal is seeking a Wellbeing Consultant. The role involves supporting students facing mental health challenges through assessments and crisis management. Ideal candidates will have a professional qualification in mental health, strong communication skills, and experience in fast-paced environments. Benefits include a generous holiday package and the opportunity for hybrid working hours.

Benefits

Generous holiday package

Healthcare initiatives

Pension schemes

Qualifications

• Experience in crisis management and safeguarding is essential.
• Must demonstrate strong communication and advice skills.
• Ability to work flexibly in high-pressure situations.

Responsibilities

• Act as a central point of contact for students with mental health difficulties.
• Provide assessment and short-term support for students' welfare concerns.
• Manage safeguarding processes and crisis situations.

Skills

Crisis management

Communication skills

Teamwork

Mental health knowledge

Flexibility

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse / Social Worker

Tools

Word

Excel

Email

Internet

Databases

Job description

Salary : 35608 to 37694 with progression to 46049 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date : 29 September 2025

The Role

The Wellbeing Consultancy team acts as an initial point of contact for students, parents, academics and other stakeholders to disclose welfare or safety concerns about any Newcastle University student. The team offers responsive support and signposting for students experiencing high distress and mental health concerns as well as guidance and consultancy to university colleagues.

This vital role would suit a candidate with experience of working in dynamic and fast‑paced settings with a passion for working in Higher Education. Experience of working in mental health or safeguarding with high distress and complex presentations is essential.

The workload model is split between duty working where the work is to assess and manage risk and complex mental‑health presentations – and short‑term follow‑ups. The role is student‑facing requiring proactive engagement via in‑person support, telephone calls and online meetings.

You will work closely as part of a duty team supporting colleagues and sharing responsibility for promoting student welfare, responding to concerns and ensuring a safe and supportive environment. A strong team ethos and commitment to working together are essential.

The role is campus‑based. There may be some flexible hybrid working dependent on service need. The fixed working hours are Monday to Friday 9am‑5pm.

We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Confident employer which means that we offer an interview to any applicant applying under the scheme that meets the essential criteria for a role.

Applications must be submitted by Monday 29th September.

To apply please submit a CV and cover letter outlining how you meet the criteria in The Person.

Interviews to be held on Thursday 9th and Monday 13th October.

Please contact Welfare and Counselling Service Manager Kirsty Hutchinson on with any questions or for an informal discussion about the role.

We have both full and part‑time opportunities available.

Key Accountabilities

• Act as a central point of contact for students with varied complex and sensitive mental health and wellbeing difficulties or vulnerabilities:
• Discuss support requirements.
• Provide advice, guidance and information on relevant internal and external services.
• Provide assessment and short‑term support to students experiencing a range of welfare concerns including safety planning.
• Refer to other agencies as appropriate.
• Manage risk appropriately, initiating safeguarding processes where necessary.
• Presenting concerns may include complex mental health, high distress and crisis housing and welfare issues, police and crime matters (where students may be the alleged reporter or responder) such as allegations of assault, discrimination and sexual violence etc.
• Offer proactive appointments to students to discuss relevant support requirements and facilitate ensuing communication and liaison with academic schools and other University departments.
• Manage safeguarding student crisis and follow‑up out‑of‑hours incidents, which may include but are not exclusive to missing students, hospitalisations, students being at risk to themselves or others etc.
• Act as a consultant and trainer to university staff to provide support and clinical reasoning, working together to support students with a range of mental health and wellbeing vulnerabilities.
• Work in a multi‑disciplinary team fashion liaising with both external bodies and internal colleagues to assist in providing adequate support for students.
• Undertake regular training and CPD keeping up to date with changes in legislation, government policy, research etc. and act as an information resource to the University on matters relating to emotional and psychological difficulties and mental health.
• Maintain memberships and accreditations under appropriate national bodies and relevant accreditations.
• Participate in promotion of SHWS activity open days, receptions, Welcome Week which from time to time may require working out‑of‑hours i.e. evenings and weekends (only very occasional).
• Complete and maintain electronic notes adhering to the Service policy and data protection requirements.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Knowledge and understanding of the implications of a range of mental health difficulties on individuals and potential impact on the University experience.
• Strong experience of crisis management, safeguarding and coping with sometimes life‑threatening situations.
• A highly flexible working style, duty‑style working.
• Excellent communication, advice and guidance skills.
• Ability to exercise initiative and judgement in relation to decision making.
• Ability to manage time and resources effectively by prioritising and organising a high volume of complex and varied workload.
• Evidence of experience of working in a multi‑disciplinary team.
• Evidence of commitment to principles of equal opportunities and diversity.
• Competent IT skills: Word, Excel, Email, Internet, Databases.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Takes the initiative to ensure future success of the University and area by presenting new ideas and approaches.
• Recognises urgency and takes decisive action when required.
• Accepts the reality and requirements of change as part of achieving organisational goals.
• Anticipates change and prepares for it, accepting change and running with it.
• Establishes effective time management and workload systems, planning tasks in a systematic way in conjunction with team and area objectives.
• Confidently deals with and considers large amounts of complex information quickly and identifies key issues.

Qualifications

• A relevant professional qualification such as Registered Mental Health Nurse / Social Worker and substantial demonstrable expertise in mental health.

Desirable

• Qualifications in or experience of working in a safeguarding or crisis management role.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams – we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.