Senior Support, Time and Recovery Worker - Croydon Care Homes London, England
Job description
The purpose of the Support Time and Recovery (STR) worker role is facilitate the recovery, personhood and wellbeing of clients and carers under the care of the Croydon Care Home Intervention Team (CCHIT), working alongside the multi-disciplinary team and focusing on the psycho-social domains of patients’ care with care home staff.
The post holder would be expected to have autonomous skills in developing positive relationships with care home colleagues, model and demonstrate genuine empathy with clients, care home staff, and carers in order to support clients who are living with behaviours that challenge care to improve their quality of life.
The post-holder will work closely with the multidisciplinary team in formulating, modelling and monitoring behavioural support plans and interventions to help care home staff care for their residents. The post-holder will provide psychological and practical support and modelling of interventions for a defined caseload.
The STR worker would also be expected to establish and foster working relationships with various agencies attached to care homes, such as the Complex Care Support Team and the mental health clinical specialists, Rapid Response team, Care Support Team, community Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, and other clinical teams, as well as third sector voluntary organisations such as the Alzheimer’s Society.
They will work alongside care home staff in a collaborative way for a defined period of time to implement and review interventions detailed in the CCHIT care plan, thereby upskilling care home staff in these interventions and increasing their ability to apply these more widely to the care of residents within that setting.
The Care Home Intervention Team specialises in understanding the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and behaviours that challenge care staff in the context of a person’s mental health needs.
We also seek to continually improve our service and the lives of residents by using QI methodology in partnership with care homes. It is a multi-disciplinary team, who work with people aged 65 and above living in residential or nursing care homes in Croydon, following a psycho-social model of care.
People living in care homes should expect the same level of support as if they were living in their own home. This can only be achieved through collaborative working between health, social care, Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector and care home partners.
The Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) model moves away from traditional reactive models of care delivery towards proactive care that is centred on the needs of individual residents, their families and care home staff. Such care can only be achieved through a whole-system, collaborative approach.
The EHCH model has three principal aims:
1. delivering high-quality personalised care within care homes;
2. providing, wherever possible, for individuals who (temporarily or permanently), live in a care home access to the right care and the right health services in the place of their choosing; and
3. enabling effective use of resources by reducing unnecessary conveyances to hospitals, hospital admissions, and bed days whilst ensuring the best care for people living in care homes.
In the EHCH model, care providers work in partnership with local GPs, Primary Care Networks, community healthcare providers, hospitals, social care, individuals and their families, and wider public services to deliver care in care homes. Services are ‘wrapped around’ the individual and their family, who are connected to and supported by their local community. Proactive, personalised care and support becomes the norm.
This role will contribute to the implementation of the framework in Croydon specifically:
Care Element 1: Personalised Care Support Plans
Care Element 2: MDT support including coordinated health and social care
Care Element 4: High quality palliative and end-of life, mental health, and dementia care
The key responsibilities of the role include:
MDT and inter-agency working
- To work as part of the multi-professional team supporting the planning, implementation and evaluation of patient care needs in collaboration with the clients, carers and families, and other community/inpatient services
- To work collaboratively alongside care home staff for a defined period of time to support the implementation of interventions specified in the CHIT care plans, thereby promoting both staff engagement with these plans, and increasing the ability of care home staff to apply these interventions in their care of other residents in the setting
- To support personalised care planning within the MDT, working closely with clients and their carers; to assist clients in their positive behaviour support plans which may include modelling and coaching strategies with care home staff, working to a high standard and ensuring that care plans are evaluated and updated by the MDT as required
- To work in close partnership and maintain effective communication links with other Borough health and social care services and community agencies in order to ensure the continuity of quality clinical care for clients
- to support clients’ appropriate access to local community resources in collaboration with care home staff; to develop a good knowledge of local community resources and wider directorate resources and maintain up to date information on resources for clients. This will include accessing physical health support available as part of the wider multi-disciplinary team of professionals working within care homes in Croydon
- Support care home staff, where appropriate in referring on behalf of clients to community services such as Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, religious services, and social clubs. Support clients in their initial engagement with these services if required, such as initial escorting to initial appointments if these are outside of the care home premises
- to attend team meetings and client reviews on a regular basis to feedback on and contribute to the clients’ care plans and support collaborative care planning, also advocating for the needs and perspective of care home staff
- to support multi-disciplinary team colleagues to work with clients and to provide STR input on joint visits with colleagues; to participate in the sharing of information and skills with other staff when deemed appropriate; to work with care home staff and social services colleagues to encourage and promote recovery and personhood
- To demonstrate risk awareness with respect to risk assessment and ongoing risk management, practising safely and according to individual client needs and risk management plans. Working alongside qualified staff to anticipate the individual needs of clients, showing risk awareness and communicating to relevant parties as required
- To provide relevant support families/friends in relation to their rights as carers and their involvement in the care of the client when they are under the care of the team
- To identify clients’ interests and key relationships which are helpful to their wellbeing and personhood; to actively support clients to maintain key relationships; to support clients to make choices in their own best interest
- To ensure maintenance of clinical records in accordance with good practice and the Code of Conduct for Non-Regulated Clinical Workers. To maintain confidentiality by ensuring information is shared in accordance with Trust standards and guidelines. To record and report untoward incidents, taking appropriate action and ensuring relevant staff are informed
- to monitor relapse signs in review of crisis plans and support care homes to manage their residents’ mental health needs as independently as possible
- Take part in regular supervision and appraisal, to review and reflect on own practice and performance through regular participation in clinical / professional and managerial supervision and appraisal, in line with Trust guidelines and contribute to the well-being of the team by supporting other team members, and treating all colleagues with dignity and respect. To undertake all mandatory training requirements of the role
- To contribute towards work with service development initiatives involving clients and carers where appropriate. To participate in audit, service evaluation, quality improvement projects and research undertaken by the team
- To be able to work with distressing and emotional issues whilst remaining caring, courteous and compassionate in line with SLaM’s 5 Commitments in Action. Utilizing formal and informal systems to access support and debriefing where required
- To develop positive relationships with all clients on caseload and to respect the boundaries of own relationship with clients and their carers; to promote a person-centred approach by communicating with clients and carers in a way that meets their needs and respects their views and autonomy
- to independently organise, prioritise, and manage own workload effectively
