Go back Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Carer's Peer Support Worker - Beechwood Ward
The closing date is 22 February 2026
Are you passionate about supporting families and carers of older people with mental health challenges? Join us as a Carer's Peer Support Worker on Beechwood Ward, an assessment and treatment ward providing care for older adults with functional mental health needs such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. This is a six-month secondment opportunity starting in March 2026, offering you the chance to use your lived experience of caring for someone with mental distress to inspire hope, share understanding, and empower carers to navigate their journey with confidence and resilience.
In this rewarding role, you'll build trusting relationships, provide emotional and practical support, and facilitate carer support groups. You'll implement Carer Communication Plans, advocate for carers' voices, and connect them to vital resources through statutory, voluntary, and community networks. You'll also deliver training, promote the Triangle of Care framework, and contribute to service development, evaluation, and audit activities.
Beechwood Ward offers a welcoming environment with its own garden and seating area for patients and visitors, creating a space for meaningful engagement. If you are empathetic, a strong communicator, and passionate about recovery-focused care, this is your chance to make a real difference. Join us and help carers feel valued, informed, and supported every step of the way.
Main duties of the job
As a Carer's Peer Support Worker on Beechwood Ward, you will use your lived experience to provide practical and emotional support to families and carers of older adults with mental health needs such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.
You will build trusting relationships, share experiences, and empower carers to feel confident and informed. Key responsibilities include facilitating carer support groups, implementing Carer Communication Plans for patients, and acting as a mentor by signposting carers to relevant services and resources.
You will advocate for carers' views, strengthen partnerships with clinical teams, and develop links with statutory, voluntary, and community organisations, including creating a resource database.
Additional tasks include delivering educational sessions, promoting the Triangle of Care framework, supporting carers to identify strengths, triggers, and early signs of relapse, and helping them regain hope and control through recovery principles. You will also contribute to service evaluation and audit, maintain confidentiality, and participate in supervision.
This six-month foxed term contract from March 2026 offers a unique opportunity to make a meaningful difference for carers and families.
About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.
Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.
We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.
Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence
Job responsibilities
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Completion of own wellness plan (there is no expectation for this to be shared)
* Level of educational attainment to NVQ level 2 or equivalent experience which can include lived experience of being a carer of others experiencing mental distress and recovery
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.
Employer name
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
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