Band 3 Health Care Support Worker

Are you looking to develop a career in mental health? We are looking to recruit compassionate, resilient and enthusiastic Healthcare Support Workers within our 20 bedded acute unit.

Poppy Unit is a 20 bedded mixed acute unit located in the heart of Wiltshire. We work with a range of service users who are presenting as acutely unwell and in crises.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to develop a rewarding career where you can make a real difference to help change the lives of our service user group for the better.

Poppy Unit offers a unique opportunity to dual work with Bluebell Place of Safety and Poppy Unit to ensure a full and diverse start to your career.

We are looking for professional and enthusiastic support worker to come and work with our wonderful team of qualified nurses, HCA's, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapist, Exercise Specialists, Activities Coordinator and Doctors.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to develop a rewarding career where you can make a real difference to help change the lives of our service user group for the better. You will be expected to carry out observations, engage with service users, encourage tasks of daily living, promote recovery whilst demonstrating excellent communication.

This can be a challenging yet rewarding environment where as a team we strive to help our service users to overcome a variety of complex needs.

You will be able to learn and understand how to care for service users that are in mental health crisis by promoting choice and independence in the least restrictive way possible.

Please see the attached Job Description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

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.

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 deliver high-quality care and recovery interventions for service users within designated clinical areas, in collaboration with and under the indirect supervision of registered care staff. These may include:

Supporting individuals with fluids and nutrition, physical wellbeing, and personal care.

Assisting service users with financial or accommodation issues.

Escorting or accompanying service users for planned periods of leave on hospital grounds and in the community, facilitating social inclusion.

Encouraging service users to talk about their experiences in one-to-one or group discussions.

To help maintain a clean, well-organised, safe, and therapeutic environment that meets the needs of service users, carers, and colleagues, and to support registered care staff in performing standardised environmental assessments to monitor and improve the care setting.

To deliver psychosocially informed one-to-one and group interventions aimed at positively impacting service users' cognitive and emotional wellbeing.

To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and assume lead or link roles on core practice initiatives and priorities (e.g., Essence of Care, Safewards, and carer engagement) under the supervision of registered staff.

To integrate areas of personal interest with clinical practice to enhance the diversity of the team's provision of care.

To practise planned care and directly participate in the development of recovery-focused interventions that address service users' and carers' needs and preferences.

To proactively review, record, and assess the ongoing impacts of such interventions.

To participate in ongoing care planning, CPA, and risk assessment processes in collaboration with service users, their carers, and other members of the care team, and to contribute to all aspects of clinical record keeping.

To maintain a basic working understanding of both the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act (2005), and any other relevant legislation, as required by mandatory and statutory training (MaST).

To adhere to AWP's Code of Conduct for unregistered practitioners, promoting and embedding it through the delivery of peer support and supervision to junior, temporary, and newly appointed Health Care Support Workers.

To observe and record interactions with service users and carers both verbally and in writing via clinical records and staff handovers.

Please see the attached Job Description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.