Peer Support Worker

The Community Rehabilitation Service operates in five localities across Kent to provide intensive rehabilitation and recovery focussed support to service users in their own homes. The team use an holistic approach together with partners from 3rdSector agencies who provide additional Social Care and landlord/tenancy support in order to enable individuals with complex mental health needs to manage more effectively in the community.

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Peer Support Worker who is committed to recovery of people with severe and enduring Mental Health problems into the Canterbury/Coastal Team based in Herne Bay. As a Peer Support Worker, you’ll use your own experience of recovering from mental health issues to encourage, inspire and inform others - supporting them in their own journey of recovery, and acting as a role model. As such you will play a key role in enabling clients to live as independently as possible and support them to reach their potential.
- build strong, supportive relationships with our service users
- help service users to set realistic and positive goals and empowering them to live fuller, more fulfilling lives
- offer one-to-one sessions with service users
- support service development, helping its users to get involved in this process
- complete a range of admin tasks
- liaise widely in the community
- promote awareness of mental health and reducing stigma

Come and work with us in the Garden of England where we combine exceptional professional development opportunities with a tremendous quality of life.

We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), providing mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people across the county.

The Trust (rated Good overall by the CQC and Outstanding for care) has 3,283 staff working in 66 buildings across 33 locations, covering an area of 1,450 square miles.

You will be joining friendly, passionate colleagues, rich in their diversity, who are committed to providing excellent care to our service users and their loved ones.

The nature of our work attracts kindness and compassion as standard and everyone from our cleaners and porters to the chief executive and chairman are recognised as playing a vital role in providing an exemplary service.
- Communicating with service users and supporting them in their own recovery and in relation to their care plan as part of the multi-disciplinary team, with supervision from the team.
- To bring empathy and understanding into all interactions with service users by sharing lived experience and hope.
- To model /mentor a recovery process and demonstrate coping skills, empowering service users to actively participate in their own recovery.
- To assist and advise individuals in managing their own mental health on a day to day basis, for example carrying out activities of daily living such as self-care, budgeting, personal care, caring for their home, possible work roles and leisure pursuits etc.
- To provide opportunities for individual service users to direct their own recovery process, enabling them to complete their advanced care plan.
- To positively promote recovery by making links with community resources and supporting service users to access them e.g. in relation to training, education, employment, community living and leisure etc.
- To work with staff and individuals to support a smooth discharge back into the community.
- To support the team in promoting the role of Peer Support Worker and to raise awareness of what recovery means, contributing to any local research/evaluation of this new role.
- To enhance the recovery and experience of individual service users by introducing, facilitating and supporting access to a range of community based resources to meet identified needs of the individual.
- Developing a range of relevant skills including sharing own personal recovery experience on one to one or group sessions, to give hope and support service users in their recovery.
- To adopt a flexible and participative approach to innovation and change within the team.
- To maintain confidentiality at all times in line with Trust policy and adhere to Trust and Statutory Health & Safety requirements.
- To assist in providing a safe and caring environment.
- To maintain and update training as required.To undertake any other duties as may be assigned or delegated from Manager or other Senior Trust Staff.

Please see job description for full details.