Health Care Support Worker

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen within Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust to be part of a Physical Health Team providing services to people with Severe Mental Illness.

The post holder will provide physical health checks to people with Severe Mental Illness. With the aim of enabling people to access the support they need to recover from their mental and physical health problems.

This will include facilitating annual physical health checks required for cardio-metabolic screening of those service users who are living with Serious Mental Illness.

The team predominantly covers Mid Essex, including the main towns of Chelmsford, Braintree and Maldon and the surrounding area.

This role requires regular travel between sites, and in the community. You will therefore need to have reliable transportation to meet this requirement. Applicant must be a car driver with a current UK driving license, unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010.

Whilst we welcome all applications from all suitable candidates, unfortunately, we will not be offering sponsorship for this role.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be undertaking physical health checks and wellbeing assessments for people with severe mental health illness. The post holder will promote and encourage healthy lifestyles and will assist people to access the support they need to recover from their mental health and physical health problems, promoting and maintain recovery. They will also support the locality in ensuring the Severe Mental Illness (SMI) registers are updated.

In return we offer regular supervision, access to training and development, an individual personal development plan to enable you to explore your own career and development options within the health and social care environment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To work alongside nursing staff within clinics and/or in the community to monitor and support service users in physical health clinics.
• The post holder will carry out venepuncture for requested blood tests and partake in the physiological assessment of our service users who have been identified as having severe mental illness. They will take and record physical health checks including blood pressure, pulse, weight and BMI.
• To carry out social assessments with service users either in the clinic or in their own homes including but not limited to connected lives assessment and carers assessments.
• To carry out social assessments with service users either in the clinic or in their own homes including but not limited to connected lives assessment and carers assessments.
• The post holder will have a good understanding of the clinical health guidelines of physical health monitoring and recognise when action needs to be taken.
• Assessing service users holistically. Assessing lifestyles – exercise and activities, eating and drinking, smoking, alcohol and drug use and giving advice on healthy lifestyles, referring service users on to additional services and signposting our service users to other services.
• Working with clinicians to assess and update risk information for service users.
• As part of the role, you will be conducting home visits, either with another staff member or lone working. During these you will be monitoring service user presentation, mental state, environment and other factors. You will be sharing this information with the MDT qualified staff members.
• The post holder will arrange physical health assessments with the service user in clinics or other locations where appropriate.
• To support service users to think more about their physical health needs and identify their own physical health goals, and to support monitoring goals identified with other members of the team.
• Work closely with the clinical nurse specialist to set up and maintain clinics and communicate progress effectively with local teams.
• To ensure the required referral response times are adhered to and that allocated activity levels are met.
• Report regularly to their clinical supervisor to discuss any concerns or issues.