Overview
Are you looking to build a meaningful and progressive career in mental health? We are recruiting compassionate, resilient, and enthusiastic Healthcare Support Workers to join our forensic 8‑bedged Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a specialist setting focused on acute assessment and treatment for adults experiencing significant mental health difficulties.
Our PICU supports individuals during periods of heightened distress, where they may present with complex needs and fluctuating levels of risk. The emphasis is on providing safe, structured, and therapeutic care while helping service users stabilise and begin their recovery journey.
As part of the forensic pathway, we also work closely with the criminal justice system and regularly receive transfers from prison settings. This adds a unique and interesting dynamic to the ward, offering staff the opportunity to develop specialist skills in caring for individuals whose backgrounds and experiences can be very different from those in general mental health services.
This is an exceptional opportunity to develop a rewarding career where you can make a genuine difference in the lives of people at their most vulnerable.
Key Responsibilities
* To work as part of a care team to deliver evidence‑based interventions to service users with mental health problems.
* To develop and practice therapeutic care skills, working alongside registered clinicians, making a significant contribution to service users' psychological, emotional and social wellbeing.
* To ensure service users and their relatives receive care that prioritise safety, effectiveness, partnership and hope.
* To promote and champion core care values by supporting junior, temporary and newly‑appointed Healthcare Support Workers.
* To deliver high quality care and recovery interventions for service users within designated clinical areas, in collaboration with, and under the indirect supervision of, registered care staff.
* Supporting individuals with fluids and nutrition, physical wellbeing and personal care.
* Assisting service users with financial or accommodation issues.
* Escorting or accompanying service users for planned periods of leave on hospital grounds and in the community, facilitating social inclusion.
* Encouraging service users to talk about their experiences in one-to-one or group discussions.
* Help maintain a clean, well‑organised, safe and therapeutic environment that meets the needs of service users, carers and colleagues, and support registered care staff to perform standardised environmental assessments to monitor and improve the care setting.
* Deliver psychosocially-informed one-to-one and group interventions aiming to positively impact service users' cognitive and emotional wellbeing.
* Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team. Assume lead or link roles on core practice initiatives and priorities (e.g. Essence of Care, Safewards and carer engagement) under the supervision of registered staff.
* Integrate areas of personal interest with clinical practice to enhance the diversity of the team's provision of care.
* Practical care planning, participate in the development of recovery-focused interventions that address service users' and carers' needs and preferences.
* Proactively review, record and assess the ongoing impacts of such interventions.
* Participate in the ongoing care planning, CPA and risk assessment processes in collaboration with service users, their carers, and other members of the care team and contribute to all aspects of clinical record keeping.
* Maintain a basic working understanding of the Mental Health Act (1983) and Mental Capacity Act (2005), and other relevant legislation, as required by mandatory and statutory training (MaST).
* Adhere to AWP's Code of Conduct for unregistered practitioners, promoting and embedding it through the delivery of peer support and supervision to junior, temporary and newly‑appointed Health Care Support Workers.
* Observe and record interactions with service users and carers both verbally and in writing via clinical records and staff handovers.
* Deliver a wide range of fundamental care interventions using evidence-based clinical tools, monitor and improve physical health and personal wellbeing, and model a high standard of dignity, respect and candour.
* Engage in reflective practice to maintain and promote ongoing clinical practice.
* Promote and enhance a positive learning culture, being proactive in the induction, orientation and support of junior, temporary and newly‑appointed Health Care Support Workers, seeking to embed core care values into practice.
As a Healthcare Support Worker, you will spend much of your time engaging with and getting to know the service users on the ward. Through these therapeutic interactions, you will develop the ability to recognise signs and symptoms of mental health difficulties and contribute meaningfully as a key member of our multi‑professional team, which includes Nurses, Doctors, and Occupational Therapists. You will play an active role in collaborative care planning and the delivery of high‑quality, person‑centred care.
Although we are a mental health unit, we place equal emphasis on physical health monitoring and wellbeing. Healthcare Support Workers are essential in ensuring that daily care needs are met, physical health concerns are identified promptly, and clinical observations are completed accurately and consistently.
Successful applicants will also be required to undertake and complete the Reducing Restrictive Interventions (RRI) training programme. This training equips staff with the knowledge and skills to use proactive, least-restrictive approaches, supporting safe and compassionate de‑escalation during periods of distress while maintaining a therapeutic environment for all.
Eligibility & Requirements
* Legal right to work in the UK is required. This position is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship.
* Successful applicants will undertake and complete the RRI training programme.
* Ability to adhere to the Mental Health Act (1983), Mental Capacity Act (2005) and other relevant legislation, and mandatory statutory training (MaST).
* A commitment to AWP's Code of Conduct for unregistered practitioners.
Diversity & Inclusion
We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived‑experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Employer offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria, including people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).
We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, and we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.
About Us
We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust), a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person‑centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
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