Therapeutic Support Worker

We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, motivated, and compassionate therapeutic Support Workers to play a core part in delivering skills underpinned by brief psychological interventions within the new Psychological Skills Service (PSS) Central in Fenland and Huntingdonshire.

The Psychological Skills Service was developed as part of the Exemplar project in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS trust (CPFT). CPFT were chosen by NHS England as one of the national exemplar pilot sites for the redesign and transformation of primary and community mental health care. The goal of this transformation project was to develop and deliver a new service paradigm that seeks to provide a more seamless pathway of mental health care and eliminate current gaps between services.

PSS was developed to try and address gaps in service provision, and we currently provide interventions for those clients who would have fallen into the gaps between primary and secondary care. The PSS is a Trauma informed service, acknowledging that, the majority of clients referred to the service have experienced some form of trauma in their lives.

You will be part of a team of Clinical and Counselling Psychologists, CBT Therapists; Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPs); and Assistant Psychologists. We also have Social Work, Occupational Therapy and Mental Health Nurse expertise forming our team management.

As a therapeutic support worker you will fill an important position offering psychologically informed support and psychological skills to a group of people previously described as “not ready” for psychological therapy.

On a day to day basis the role will involve the following tasks:

- Building relationships with the client with a view to promote a sense of safety via modelling of attention to safety.
- Delivering and teaching psychological skills. In particular ones designed to support people with the stabilisation phase of recovering from complex trauma. Including;
- Anxiety Management
- Low Mood
- Graded exposure
- Hearing voices
- To support people to make their own choices and identify recovery goals that are important to them, using empowerment skills.
- Support work to assist with; including (but not limited to);
- increase connections in their community
- feel less isolated
- increase interest and activities they do
- increase independent living skills and practice skills
- Support and facilitate group interventions, with clinicians in the team.
- To complete relevant letters and reports related to the interventions delivered

Previous knowledge or experience of delivering brief psychological skills would be an advantage.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
- To assist in the co-ordination and delivery of Skills based brief psychological intervention skills within the team.
- To develop BPI Skills, including graded exposure plans for clients when appropriate, including; graded exposure for anxiety, anxiety management and problem solving, coping with voices and behavioural activation.
- To provide coaching in psychological skills e.g. breathing techniques, challenging thoughts, self soothing.
- To complete discharge letters of interventions carried out (with training and supervision)
- To contribute to the development of referral guidelines/ exclusion/ inclusion criteria for clients who might benefit from this service based on feedback from your experiences.
- To identify when clients need interventions from other services and initiate timely onward referral as indicated.
- To support the development of brief psychological interventions and templates for formulation driven support
- To effectively communicate verbally with clients, carers and colleagues using motivational interviewing skills and adapting communication style when needed to engage clients and meet their needs. This may involve using skills to adapt strategies where clients have difficulties in communication eg. Hearing loss, diminished sight, cognitive impairment, or neurodiversity adaptations.
- Establish and maintain appropriate working relationships with colleagues, clients, carers and other health care professionals
- To assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and to work within a legal framework with clients who lack capacity to consent to treatment
- To attend relevant external and internal courses to extend knowledge or gain