Family and Patient Support Therapist

St Margaret’s Hospice Care has a fantastic opportunity for a **Family and Patient Support Therapist **to join their team. This role is based in our Taunton and Yeovil Hospices. You will join us on a part time (29 hour per week), permanent basis and in return, you will receive a competitive salary of **£28,592.28 per annum.**

St Margaret’s philosophy is to keep the patient at the heart of everything we do and we expect staff to uphold our values at all times and fulfill our commitment to providing excellent specialist palliative care for patients and support to their families. We go to great lengths to recruit the right people. We want people with a positive attitude who are willing to go the extra mile, not because they are asked to but because they are passionate about working for St Margaret’s

**What can you expect to be doing?**

We are seeking a practitioner qualified to deliver specialist psychotherapeutic support to individuals and groups. As part of our Supportive Care Service, you will provide evidenced based, therapeutic support to patients with a palliative diagnosis, families, children and young people who have been, or are about to be bereaved of someone significant to them.

This cross-county role will be based in our Taunton and Yeovil Hospice sites and will see clients as out-patients, in their own homes and at other community venues. There will be the requirement to travel by car across the whole County including rural communities. Although the majority of work will be within normal working hours, some evening and weekend work will be needed.

You will be based within the wider supportive care team of counsellors and therapists. You will need to be qualified to practice as a specialist counsellor, psychotherapist, systemic practitioner or equivalent.

**Responsibilities as our **Family and Patient Support Therapist** will include**:

- Work within therapeutic boundaries, managing a complex caseload of patients and clients with specialist psychological needs in relation to a life limiting illness
- Monitor and triage requests for psychological therapies, assessing and identifying best therapeutic response
- Support the practitioners within the team and deliver clinical supervision
- Support the development and delivery of therapeutic practices within the supportive care team
- Collaborative working with other healthcare professions and the multi-disciplinary team
- Provide a timely and responsive pre and post bereavement service for families, children and young adults

**Our Core Competencies for our **Family and Patient Support Therapist**:

- **Self-awareness** - Understanding and being aware of yourself and how to react and interact with others
- **Leading in your area** - Regardless of management position, we all lead and take responsibility in our area of work
- **Working with others** - People working together to achieve team and organisational goals and respecting others
- **Outcomes and results** - Organising ourselves to get the job done, delivering a high-quality service, and being accountable for the outcomes

**Benefits**
- **Holiday entitlement**
- 33 days holiday including bank holidays rising to 35 days after 1 year, and increasing with length of service (pro-rata if part-time)
- Recognise continuous service for clinical staff paid at band 5+ who join directly from the NHS or another hospice
- **Pension scheme**
- NHS employees eligible to continue with their NHS pension scheme*
- Non-NHS employees will receive 5% employer and 5% employee contribution
- **Life assurance cover** - 2x salary
- **Award-winning Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family offering**:

- Vitality & wellbeing health portal for non-emergency care
- Unlimited access to 24/7 online GP Consultations for employees, their partners, and dependent children as well as Expert Case Management
- Confidential and free 24-hour Employee Assistance
- Counselling and support
- Legal, financial, and medical information and advice
- **Blue Light Card** - Discounts on retailers and restaurants saving up to 35%
- **Enhanced maternity/paternity leave**:

- **Excellent learning and development opportunities**:

- **Free on-site parking in Yeovil and Taunton**:

- **Volunteering and fundraising opportunities**
- Eligibility criteria applies

If you would like to join our team as our **Family and Patient Support Therapist**, we’d love to hear from you.

**Closing Date**:

- 25th February 24