Community Support Worker

We are looking for a full-time Community Support Worker to work in Intensive Support as part of the Dementia & Older People’s Mental Health Team based in Worthing, West Sussex. Intensive Support operates 9am–5pm, 7 days a week including Bank Holidays.

The Community Support Worker role is pivotal to the review process of older people and their carers who are experiencing crisis and require interventions from our services. This will involve direct work with people in the community and home settings, liaison with primary care services and other providers of support within the local community.

The successful candidate will join a friendly, highly-skilled and enthusiastic multi-professional team. We will support you to develop the skills important to this role, and the post-holder will be encouraged to develop special interests and expertise in line with service and team objectives.

You will be part of a highly-skilled and supportive multi-disciplinary team based in Worthing. You will receive regular managerial and clinical supervision.

The post holder will be expected to travel across the geographical area (Adur, Arun & Worthing) covered by the team; the ability to travel to remote areas is essential.

The Community Support Worker role is pivotal to the review process of older people and their carers who are receiving interventions from our services. This will involve direct work with people in the community and home settings, liaison with primary care services and other providers of support within the local community.

You must have excellent communication skills.

As a support worker you will work under close clinical supervision from a registered professional to provide high-quality care as a member of the multi-disciplinary team.

The post holder will always work to promote the safety and well-being of service users and their families/carers.

We’re a large NHS Mental Health and Learning Disability Trust in South East England. We are looking for people to help us provide high-quality services for the patients, carers and local communities we serve.

We want patients and staff to recommend our organisation as a place where they would be happy for their friends and family to be treated. You can help us do this by bringing your skills, experience and commitment to Sussex Partnership.

Further details are in the attached job description.

• NVQ Level 2 in Care or equivalent experience
• Experience of working as part of a team
• Willing to undertake NVQ 2/3 training

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and, as such, it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

• NVQ Level 3 or equivalent experience

• Experience of working with mental health needs in a paid or voluntary capacity
• Experience of working collaboratively i.e. with colleagues, wider teams, service users, etc.
• An understanding of confidentiality

• Good communication skills with a good command of written and spoken English
• Ability to exchange factual information with service users using reassurance, tact, and empathy
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team; be flexible around shift work and have good communication skills
• Ability to know when to escalate concerns
• Ability to work in partnership with service users, carers and other agencies
• Ability to know when to seek support from team members when working individually within a service user group or in a 1:1 setting
• Ability to occasionally organise own day-to-day work tasks or activities
• Basic IT skills
• Ability to carry out duties related to lone working including escorting service users on home visits and accessing the community

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and, as such, it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.