Trainee Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner

Would you like to help people manage their mental health in a new role?

Perhaps your lived experience of mental health problems is putting you in a unique position to support others going through similar challenges.

Are you looking for a career change and are enthusiastic about caring and supporting people?

We are recruiting for workers across Oxfordshire, based in Oxford City, Banbury and Witney and Abingdon and surrounding areas.

We are looking for a highly motivated individual to join our teams as a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner. This is an exciting brand-new role created by Health Education England and NHS England and Improvement to support the transformation of adult community mental health services. Your training will be fully funded by the NHS, and you will be eligible for a full-time qualified position if you pass the course. In return, we ask that you commit to staying with us for at least two years after you qualify.

As a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner, you will be expected to work under supervision as part of a dynamic mental health team delivering psychologically informed interventions and supporting adults to receive the right care. You will need to have flexibility and adaptability and a passion for working with older adults/adults with severe mental health problems.

During the one-year graduate certificate/postgraduate certificate training, you will, under supervision, develop knowledge and practice skills to employ wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions for serious mental health problems for adults individually and in groups, as well as support their families and carers, in line with the education providers expectations.

**The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will**:

- attend all elements of the training programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment
- support collaborative care planning, alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team
- work closely alongside a team of mental health professionals to deliver a set of brief wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions - not therapy - for example behavioural Activation and Graded Exposure using the “GOALS” programme.
- support with problem-solving, improving sleep, recognising and managing emotions, guided self-help for bulimia and binge-eating, medicines management.

This is an excellent opportunity to join Oxford Health; a large and innovative NHS Foundation trust, which has a strong track record for supporting the development of psychological therapy services. The Trust has two IAPT services, a range of specialist psychological therapy services and employs over 500 psychological therapists. Healthy Minds and the Trust provide regular high quality CPD and training. The Trust hosts the Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training and Research and the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. Our psychological services are actively involved in research, participating in a number of local and national studies. The service benefits from being a member of the Oxford Academic Health Sciences Network - Anxiety and Depression Network led by Professor David Clark.

Benefits of working for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust include:

- Excellent opportunities for career progression
- 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, with an increase to 33 days with continuous service
- NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
- Staff accommodation
- Competitive pension scheme
- Lease car scheme
- Cycle to work scheme

We’re looking for people who are compassionate, work well in a team, are enthusiastic, highly motivated and have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Experience of working in a mental health setting would be beneficial. However, you may instead have relevant life experience or transferable skills that would enable you to effectively support people with mental health challenges.

MHWPs receive weekly case management supervision, clinical skills supervision, and training in addition to regular line management. There are clear progression routes and a wealth of opportunities for career development within Oxford Health.

It is a programme requirement that apprentices must provide evidence of achievement of GCSE Maths and English grade C or above or grade 4 and above, or equivalent qualification as well as evidence of having studied as Level 4/5. Qualifications gained overseas will be required to be checked by NARIC for equivalency.

On successful completion of the programme, apprentices will be equipped with the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and behaviours relevant to employment as a qualified Mental health Wellbeing Practitioner within an Adult Mental health services and will progress from a Band 4 Trainee MHWP contract to a permanent Band 5 Qualified MHWP contract.

The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will be required to:

- Demonst