Band 3 Healthcare Support Worker

On Sycamore Ward, we are looking for highly Health Care Assistants to join the our experienced friendly team.

Sycamore Ward is within the building of Hillview Lodge, in the grounds of The Royal United Hospital. Sycamore is currently piloting a 15 bedded all female ward. However, this will return to a mixed gender ward in the very near future.

We are very proud of our service user/carer involvement in the development of our services.

If you are positive, pro-active and can make important decisions under pressure, if you are a strong team player who is able to take responsibility and work with a service-user centred mind-set, then you might be a perfect addition to the Sycamore team

To work as part of a care team to deliver evidence-based interventions to service users with mental health problems.

To develop and practice, working alongside registered clinicians, a set of therapeutic care skills, making a significant contribution to service users' psychological, emotional and social wellbeing.

To ensure service users and their relatives receive care that prioritises safety, effectiveness, partnership and hope.

To promote and champion core care values by supporting junior, temporary and newly-appointed Healthcare Support Workers.

We have a very active weekly community meeting that service users, carers, volunteers and a range of staff attend. This is a great time to get together to share good news and to raise areas that we would all like to work together on to make the ward a safe and welcoming place.

The ward has a clear mission statement created by the MDT. Staff are very active with the safe wards project and reducing restrictive practice. We are currently running a QI project on sexual safety. The ward team has a positive reporting culture, and welcomes training opportunities such as trauma informed care. Staff also have a very active social support network.

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

To contribute to the full range of activities required to deliver ongoing comprehensive mental health assessment for service users with severe and enduring mental health needs living in the community and in a range of settings. This may include:

The use of standardised assessment tools such as Cluster Allocation Support Tool (CAST), KGV.

To contribute to planning, delivering and reviewing treatment programmes using appropriate frameworks in line with evidence–based practice, including strategies to manage risk for service users with complex needs and carers, bringing in other resources as required.

To act as care coordinator for identified service users, also providing defined interventions to individuals on other workers caseloads.

To contribute to the planning, delivery and evaluation of defined, therapeutic interventions as identified, in line with personal recovery plans, including to service users who maybe on other caseloads. This might include:

Individual or group therapeutic intervention.

Psychological treatments such as CBT, DBT approaches , family interventions.

See job description for full main responsibilities