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Location

Lewisham, Greater London | United Kingdom

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Job description

An exciting opportunity to join the team at Lewisham Early Intervention Service and provide vocational and benefits support to people recovering from First Episode Psychosis.

The successful applicant will be working as part of a multi-disciplinary mental health team alongside other mental health and social care professionals, supporting service users living in Lewisham - a vibrant & ethnically diverse South East London borough.

The main purpose of the role will be to support service users into education, structured vocational activities, volunteering and/or pre-vocational training, as well as informing and educating service users about the benefits they may be entitled to, and supporting with benefits applications & advocacy where needed.

We’re looking to recruit an enthusiastic and proactive individual with strong rapport-building skills and a can-do attitude. The successful applicant will be expected over time to develop partnerships with educational establishments, local providers and services to ensure that our service users have access to the widest possible range of opportunities.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust(SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services.

By coming to work at SLaM, you will gain experience of being part of an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field. SLaM delivered more than 14,000 training experiences in 2014; providing an extensive range of learning opportunities for staff at all levels. In addition, our working relationship with King's Health Partners allows those working at the Trust to get involved in academic research.

Clinical
• Carrying out specialist vocational assessments, helping service users to identify and consider vocational opportunities, set personal vocational goals, and develop appropriate action plans to overcome any barriers.
• Supporting service users to complete benefits application forms where eligible, such as Personal Independence Payments, Universal Credit, and Employment Support Allowance.
• Develop and facilitate vocational group work as appropriate.
• Keeping up to date with local and national education and labour market trends, and informing and educating service users and colleagues about education/training opportunities for our client group.
• Keeping up to date and informing and educating service users and colleagues about welfare benefit changes relevant to client group

Communication & engagement

• To collaboratively and sensitively work with individuals with a range of mental health needs, adjusting and adapting approach as necessary
• To use a range of communication methods and being flexible in what is offered - face-to-face appointments, video meetings, telephone calls, emails, texts.
• To be creative and innovative in engaging sometimes hard to reach service users

MDT working and stakeholder engagement
• Contribute to the EI Pathway vocational strategy by working closely alongside the team’s Occupational Therapist, Employment specialist and STaR worker
• Working with local providers to identify work experience, volunteering, courses and training that meet the needs of service user’s vocational development
• Working as part of a team, sharing knowledge and expertise, and contributing to team meetings, service development activities and wider vocational networks

Documentation
• Typing clear and concise event entries, entering data onto electronic databases, ensuring that files and systems are always up-to-date and accurate.
• Participate in audits and data collection as required

Supervision and Appraisal
• To review, reflect and develop own practice through use of supervision.
• To carry out annual appraisal with supervisor.
• To attend appropriate training, both mandatory and to meet development needs identified in supervision/PDP.

Service Development
• To be responsible for keeping up to date with vocational research and service developments within the trust and borough.
• To participate and take the lead on specialist vocational service development for the team.
• Demonstrate good working knowledge of legislation effecting benefits, employment rights and disability.
• To participate and contribute in developing a vocational strategy with the other three teams in the SLAM EI pathway, LEO, STEP and COAST

This advert closes on Wednesday 20 Mar 2024

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Job tags

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Salary