Syrian Arab Republic: Community Mental Health worker

Responsibilities:

Your duties will expect to be involved in:

• understanding common mental health problems;
• listening and treating people using a range of therapeutic approaches;
• building trusting relationships with people;
• working with people in a calm manner, particularly when presented with distressed service users;
• communicating with people one-to-one, over the phone or in a group setting;
• writing letters or reports for other healthcare professionals;
• empowering people to manage their mental health effectively;
• maintaining patient records;
• developing personal knowledge and practice around mental health work;
• running and developing new mental health services or initiatives.

What to expect

• You'll be working with people who are facing mental health issues, which can be really rewarding but also emotionally stressful.
• Hours can be unsociable but often allow a greater level of autonomy in developing effective practice than similar level roles.
• There can be great variety in the work you do, allowing you to tackle mental health problems on a one-to-one basis as well as in groups, over the phone or in the community.
• You'll be expected to dress and behave in a professional way, but with the awareness of being approachable to service users.
• You may be expected to do some local travel as part of your work, but this will depend on your service.

Qualifications

You have a related degree to enter this career. In some situations,

Degrees in the following subject areas are relevant to the job:

• counselling;
• nursing;
• occupational therapy;
• psychology;
• social work.

Unrelated degrees can be accepted if you have completed some form of further qualification or training, for example a postgraduate award in counselling or similar.

Foundation degrees, HNDs or other qualifications may be accepted if in a relevant subject and/or combined with relevant work experience.

Postgraduate qualifications are not essential or expected but may be helpful if your undergraduate degree is in an unrelated subject.

You will need to be prepared to work towards further professional training as part of the job.

Relevant experience, alongside a proven understanding of mental health issues is the key combination for being successful in your application to the primary care graduate mental health worker role.

Skills

You will need to have:

• a good understanding of mental health issues;
• excellent listening skills to engage with service users;
• the ability to build strong, trusting relationships with service users, other health professionals and colleagues;
• independence and the ability to use your initiative, for example when lone-working or working one-to-one with service users;
• flexibility in your approach to providing service-user support;
• good written skills to write reports, letters and manage patient files and records;
• strong time management skills and organisation to manage service-user interactions and group sessions;
• professional practice awareness and the ability to develop your own clinical practice;
• an ability to manage your own personal wellbeing when dealing with difficult situations and emotional issues.

Work experience

It's very likely that you'll need some experience of working with mental health issues, and people in general, to increase your chance of securing one of these desirable posts.

Voluntary work, internships, placements or paid work in any role which has allowed you to work with people in a supportive way will be an advantage. Common areas of experience are in:

• care;
• counselling;
• disability work;
• healthcare;
• mental health services;
• social work.

Professional development

Once working you will receive training in different therapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), as well as training on services and issues specific to the local community and NHS trust.

Training varies depending on the individual trust and employer. There may be the opportunity to access additional development courses and training in areas such as managing confidentiality and working with groups.

The certificate is a necessary part of your role and enables you to develop your practice in areas such as evidence-based psychological interventions, clinical decision making, social inclusion and community engagement. The quality and enforcement of the course can vary depending on the trust so it's worth checking with your employer.

You'll need to keep up to date with developments within mental health throughout your career and you may choose to continue your own professional practice development though training opportunities offered by professional bodies such.

Career prospects

There is a high turnover of primary care graduate mental health workers as it's often a key role in which to gain experience within the mental health sector before moving into related professional roles.

Career progression is possible into a variety of associated roles, all of which are likely to involve further training and increasing levels of experience with mental health issues.

For application please see the link:

https://form.jotformeu.com/63262491448359