Peer Support worker Psychosis

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for a Band 4 peer support worker. The successful candidate will join the Mental Health Services for Older People (MHSOP) clinical nurse specialist (CNS) team working with people who have received a diagnosis of Psychosis or who are experiencing voices and visions and the Recovery and Wellbeing College which is a peer led service and part of the Cardiff and Vale Mental Health Clinical Board.

MHSOP CNS for ‘Psychosis’/Voices and visions provides help and support to people aged 65 years or over after receiving a diagnosis of ‘psychosis’ as well as supporting people in the service who have not received this diagnosis but are experiencing emotional distress related to voices, visions or unshared beliefs/alternative realities. The CNS team aims to increase trauma informed and healing care and evidence based psychosocial interventions within MHSOP. Acting as a resource to the MHSOP service as a whole, raising awareness of the needs of service users, providing information, therapeutic interventions for individuals and groups and, training and consultation.

The role of peer support worker (PSW) in the CNS team and Recovery college has been developed specifically for people who have lived experience of receiving a diagnosis of ‘psychosis’ and the challenges of recovery and living well with and making sense of these experiences. We anticipate our PSWs will inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible.

The role and responsibilities include; being an integral and highly valued member of the multi-disciplinary team, PSWs will provide structured peer support and practical assistance to their allocated caseload of service users: enabling them to regain control over both their lives and their recovery process. Participating in the ongoing assessment, planning, delivering and review of care to meet identified physical and mental health, social and well-being needs.

They will model the values of recovery within and outside of MHSOP and share wisdom gained from their own experiences. Being active in their own recovery and showing a willingness to share these recovery experiences while supporting us in embedding the Recovery Principles of Hope, Control and Opportunity across training, service delivery and design.

Clinical supervision and support will be provided by the CNS for ‘Psychosis’. The PSW will be under the overarching supervision of the Clinical Lead nurse and the MHCB Peer Support Lead.

The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 17,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving over 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale, we are focussed on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services. Together we are committed to improving health outcomes for everyone, delivering excellent care and support.

Our mission is “Living Well, Caring Well, Working Together”, and our vision is that every person’s chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. Our 10-year transformation and improvement strategy, Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, is our chance to work collaboratively with the public and our workforce to make our health board more sustainable for the future.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Lisa Lane Job title: Transformation Lead, MHSOP Email address: ***email_hidden*** Telephone number: 02921 825777

Gail Evans, Lead Nurse Practitioner

[email protected]