Sussex Mental Healthline Call Operator

We are the Sussex Mental Healthline. We provide a 24/7 telephone service offering listening support, advice, information and signposting to anyone experiencing difficulties with their mental health. We are a positive and caring team of nurses, occupational therapists, therapists, support workers (and more ).

The Sussex Mental Healthline exists as a recognition of the fact that Mental illness and distress can occur at any time. Our service aims to support people when they need us; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We are currently recruiting for a Sussex Mental Healthline Operator to join our busy team. You will be joining a friendly, supportive and dedicated team of Clinicians and Call Operators responding to Sussex-wide callers who require support for their own or others Mental Health difficulties.

All work is telephone based and we are currently working from home, although we have some access to office space in Sussex which you will be expected to work from as and when required.

As a Call Operator you will be trained in a specific triage tool, to be utilised alongside your existing skills, to support callers and where necessary escalate to a clinician or signpost to services across Sussex.

We place a large focus on staff training, including a bespoke induction and plenty of on-going in-house training. You will benefit from a full and robust supervision package, with ample opportunities for group reflection, development and mentoring.

The Sussex Mental Healthline is a free service which is open to anyone within the Sussex Region. There is no appointment system so the work is fast-paced and varied.

To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID

SPFT provides mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire.

**Working in Sussex**:

- Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns
- Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
- With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure

We’d love you to join our organisation that is rated ‘good’ overall and ‘outstanding’ for caring by the CQC. Our staff agree, in our recent staff survey 82% told us that they recognise that care for patients is our top priority.

**Key staff survey results include**:

- 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
- 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team
- 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles

We encourage flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, home-working, part time hours, flexible start/ finish times or anything else. If it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.

To be successful in this role you will share our passion, desire and empathetic approach to supporting people of all ages with complex mental health needs, who are often experiencing crisis.

**Requirements**:

- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- Competent IT skills
- Experience of working with people with Mental Health needs
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced and varied and demanding role
- Ability to work flexible hours; to include evenings, weekends and nights
- Able to work autonomously (usually from home)
- Ability to travel and work from an office base in Sussex as and when required

Flexibility with working patterns to include some weekend and evening work is essential. This does bring with it increased rates of pay for unsocial hours as set out under the Agenda for Change (AfC) guidelines.

SPFT staff have the capacity to work from home remotely where applicable and in agreement with your Line Manager.

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.