Recovery in Community Peer Support Worker

Job Title: Recovery in Community Peer Support Worker
Accountable to: Head of Community
Reporting to: Recovery in Community Team Coordinator
Location: Hybrid including Inpatient psychiatric settings across Greater Manchester, community settings, home or office working (central Manchester), occasional travel outside of Greater Manchester
Salary: £14,945.40 pro rata (FTE £24,909)
Hours: 21 hours per week
Contract: Permanent

Role Context

Recovery in Community is a collaborative initiative delivered in partnership between Gaddum and Manchester Mind. The service supports people to leave inpatient mental health settings and return to their community with the support they need to recover and remain well.

As a team, we deliver psycho-social interventions, advocacy, housing and welfare rights advice, peer support to adults as well as tailored support to young people (those under the age of 25).  All we do is underpinned by listening and ensuring people feel heard – because we know that when people are listened to, they recover. The team works with colleagues within the mental health, primary care, inpatient and community sectors.   

Role Purpose

As a Peer Support Worker, you will have lived or living experience of receiving mental health care or treatment in hospital. Using your expertise gained through this experience, you will support peers in their mental health recovery who are ready to leave hospital or are already in the community. Receiving support from your colleagues, you’ll develop and manage your casework practice and hold a small case load. 

You will walk alongside people to set achievable goals to ensure they get the support that they need, ultimately feeling connected to their communities – the right services and support network.

This role will work with a small but intensive caseload (max 12 cases for a full-time peer support worker) to focus on: 

• Repatriate: when people are sent to an out of area placement (OAPs) advocate to get them back to Greater Manchester so they can recover in their community. 

• Discharge: Supporting people when they’re ready to be discharged from inpatient mental health services to get back to the community and recover. 

• Prevent re-admissions: Work with people, post-discharge, to ensure they continue to get the support they need to make informed choices, stay well and ultimately thrive.  

Main Duties and Responsibilities 

• To provide bespoke support to people that are ready to be discharged from inpatient psychiatric care to return to the community, building (with support) packages of care so they have a positive and sustained recovery. 

• To work alongside people post-discharge, in their community setting (e.g. home or supported accommodation) to ensure they get what they need to stay well. 

• To effectively manage a small caseload (about 7 people), being flexible to people’s needs and short-term changes in schedule. 

• To work in a person-centred, trauma informed, empowering and culturally appropriate way that enables people to feel listened to and heard.  

• To help people engage with services and make sustainable links with their communities. 

• To use and develop your knowledge of community care, policies, legislation and services to get people the support they need to recover and stay well. 

• Identify when cases need escalation or onward referral and keep your line manager aware of case developments. 

• Independently visit people in inpatient and community settings in Manchester and across Greater Manchester, adhering to lone working and risk management procedures. 

• Occasionally visit people out of the Greater Manchester area who need to return to their community in Manchester (all travel expenses will be paid and non-commute travel time will be part of your working day). 

• Build relationships with colleagues within services (e.g. inpatient staff, social care, CMHTs etc) to enable improved collaborative working 

• Take part in multi-disciplinary meetings, representing the views of people, and their aspirations on returning to community settings. 

• Support the ongoing service development, drawing on your role as an ‘Expert by Experience’ and using what you hear from the people you support to contribute to the development of the services by reviewing and contributing to improvements. 

All staff are expected to work within all Gaddum policies and procedures. This role is subject to a enhanced DBS check.