Young Adults Peer Support Worker

The five Young Adult's Peer Support Worker (YA PSW) roles has been developed specifically for people who have lived experience of recovery from mental health challenges while a adolescence and during young adulthood. The role is also open to people who have experience of being in care. Through sharing wisdom from their own lived experience, the YA PSW will inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible, and support young people accessing Children and Adolescence Mental Health services (CAMHs) as well as those moving from CAMHs to Adult Mental Health Services (ages 16-25) through their own recovery journey. The YA PSW will support young adults who have recently presented to adult services and proved a tailored recovery package to support the young adult needs derived from lived experience.

As an integral member of the multi-disciplinary team, the YA PSW will provide peer support and practical assistance to young adults, supporting them in their own unique recovery journey. They will also work collaboratively with Parent/Carer PSWs and the wider team to assist in improving the wellbeing of families and carers of young people accessing CAMHS or moving to Adult Mental Health Services or to community/ charity providers across the trust.

The YA PSWs will work flexibly with young adult across a variety of CNWL boroughs; Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea. The role may also entitle occasionally running a group on a weekend.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Central and North West London NHS Trust expects the Young Adult Peer Support Worker to act in a way which shows an understanding of our core values and is active in putting them into practice with service users, their friends, family and carers and also other staff members.

**COMPASSION**: contribution to a caring and kind environment and recognition that what you do and say can help to improve the lives of others.

**RESPECT**: acknowledge, respect and value diversity of each individual, recognition of uniqueness.

**EMPOWERMENT**: commitment to providing information, resources and support to help others make their own decisions and meet their own needs. The Trust endeavours to support all staff to enable them to develop and grow.

**PARTNERSHIP**: work closely with others and behave in a way that demonstrates understanding that commissioners and users of our services are the people who generate and fund our work
1. To work with the multi-disciplinary team in order to support young people accessing CAMHS or moving from CAMHS to Adult Mental Health Services.
2. To assume a ‘coaching’ role supporting young people in developing their personal recovery plans; this can be delivered individually or in groups.
3. To assist young people to identify their strengths, personal interests and goals.
4. To provide opportunities for young people to direct their own recovery process alongside the team and their families/parents/carers.
5. To facilitate the young person in moving through and beyond CAMHS services.
6. To support young people that are moving from CAMHS services to Adult Mental Health Services, drawing on their own lived experience of making this transition and ensuring that the young person is kept informed and involved at every stage of this.
7. To support young people in making sense of their experiences of mental and emotional distress. This might include understandings of personal and social recovery, health and wellbeing, personal and social identity whilst recognising that each individual’s recovery is a distinctive and deeply personal process, and being highly sensitive to their use of language and descriptions of experiences.
1. To model/mentor a recovery process and demonstrate coping skills, using own experience of recovery.
2. To act as a role model to inspire hope, share life experiences and lessons learned as a person in recovery.
3. To contribute to the assessment, planning, implementation and review of care with the multi-disciplinary team.
4. To work together with the young person and their parents/carers in the drawing up of care plans, encouraging and motivating young people to take an active role in their own care plan.
5. To assist young people in managing their mental health on a day to day basis including providing support with activities of daily living such as personal care and engaging in education and leisure activities.
6. To positively promote and support young people in maintaining links with their communities, education and leisure activities by maintaining extensive knowledge and links with community resources and actively supporting young people to access them.
7. To assist in the development and implementation of educational and pe