Telecoach

Are you an assistant psychologist, PWP, therapist, nurse, social worker or occupational therapist? Are you looking to expand your skills and get more experience of working in crisis? If so, then this is the position for you

The SPA promotes dynamic and innovative way of working, triaging and responding to crisis referrals. The role encompasses the NHS principle; right care, right time and right place. The SPA triages mental health crisis calls and referrals, providing tele-coaching psychologically informed interventions, support, guidance and signposting.

Working via telephone within the SPA, Telecoaches are experts in validating, de-escalating crisis, formulating plans and coaching people in distress tolerance and emotional regulation strategies. Using a range of brief psychological interventions, Telecoaches empower patients, carers and families to manage distress and crisis effectively.

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.

Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.

We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.

We’re rated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Together, we’re committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.

We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.

**Key responsibilities are to**:

- To be responsible for initial triage of service users presenting with a self-determined crisis.
- Provide short term intervention over the telephone, appropriate to the individuals’ needs/presentation to de-escalate immediate crisis.
- Participate fully in providing quality care in line with local and national guidelines.
- To respond to any crisis that a service user may advise of.
- Act as a role model in providing a service for people with mental health problems.
- To liaise with other agencies e.g. Adult Care Services, Children Schools and Families, Benefit Agency, Housing Authorities, CGL, voluntary sector etc., for joint planning with, or on behalf of, service users.
- To participate in regular supervision.
- To contribute to multi-disciplinary working.
- Supervise and support Apprentice and Trainee staff.
- Act as the patients and relatives advocate.
- Maintain close liaison with any staff currently involved in a service user’s care.
- To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
- To implement psychologically-informed interventions to clients under the direct clinical supervision of a clinical / counselling psychologist.
- To contribute to the psychological offer in the crisis teams in both individual and group-based settings.