Gateway/triage Coordinator

**Job Title**: Triage Coordinator/First Point of Contact.

**Location**: Essex/Flexi Working.

**Responsible to**: CEO.

**Salary**:£23,000 p.a.

**Hours**:37.5 hours a week, flexi. To cover core hours of Monday
- Friday 9am-7pm.

**Contract**: 3 year contract.

Reach Out for Mental Health (ROFMH) is a suicide prevention service operating in Essex set up to reduce the number of attempted and completed suicides in the area. (ROFMH) offers individuals a choice of support covering befriending, coaching and coffee afternoons across the county. We operate with a small army of dedicated and passionate volunteers, most of whom have either personal lived experience of emotional distress/suicidal thoughts, have supported a loved one or have sadly lost someone to suicide. ROFMH was set up to support individuals who were feeling suicidal, overwhelmed or felt like they’d just hit a wall with life. All volunteers are trained in suicide prevention techniques and are here to offer a safe, respectful and trusting environment to anyone who feels unable to cope.

As first point of contact you will be responsible for triaging and coordinating all referrals for all services into Reach Out for Mental Health (ROFMH) to enable us to provide a high quality and responsive service. You will have excellent knowledge of local support available, including statutory services for inappropriate referrals. You will also be aware of alternative services to help our clients such as benefits, social care and domestic/sexual violence organisations. You will develop and nurture working relationships with partner organisations and stay up to date with any changes or new services available.

Working alongside the CEO you will meet regularly to review data regarding referrals such as demographics, common issues and client engagement. You will also be responsible for evaluating clients after exiting the service for client satisfaction, performance and outcome measurement.

**Who are we looking for?**

We are looking for an individual who is experienced in supporting adults in emotional distress and is confident in risk assessing and making decisions independently. You will be a person centred, calm reliable, flexible, and empathetic communicator who is skilled and experienced in logístical planning with good attention to detail. We’re a tiny team who works from home most of the time so it’s essential you’re comfortable working independently, can use your initiative and manage your own time effectively.

**Specific Responsibilities**:

- Manage, assess suitability and coordinate referrals into the service.
- Signpost clients, where appropriate, towards other ROFMH services and/or other local mental health, and non-mental health, services.
- Liaise with other agencies, including statutory and voluntary sector providers, as a representative of the service. Develop working relationships with complimentary services and organisations across Essex.
- Keep up-to-date resources directory for other services and organisations to signpost on to.
- Ensure regular monitoring and data collection, providing written reports on service delivery. To include statistics and regular reports on referrals including location, presenting issues and nature of support required by clients.
- To evaluate client satisfaction and service performance. To provide regular qualitative and quantitative data including case studies and testimonials from clients.

**General Responsibilities**:

- Positively represent ROFMH both internally and externally, and promote our work.
- Promote understanding, awareness and positive attitudes towards mental health and suicidal thoughts/behaviours.
- Promote equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Attend and actively contribute to individual supervision and training sessions, team meetings and organisational events.
- Perform other duties appropriate to the role.
- Support, encourage and engage active client participation wherever possible.

**Person Specification**:
**Experience**:
**Essential**:

- Substantial experience of working within mental health.
- Experience of working with people from diverse communities.
- Experience of coordinating a project.
- Experience of developing and maintaining excellent working relationships with partnering agencies.
- Experience of representing a service/organisation to generate referrals and develop opportunities for partnership working.
- Minimum 1 year experience of working within health and/or social care setting either public, private or third sector.
- Experience of providing one to one support to vulnerable adults, or people in severe mental distress, both in person and remotely.
- Experience of developing effective relationships with external agencies & other stakeholders.

**Desirable**:

- Experience of supervising volunteer counsellors/ befrienders.
- Experience of providing telephone counselling/befriending.
- Experience of using a dedicated database/system for recording and reporting service