Mental Health & Wellbeing Coach
Job Description
Job summary
You will see patients with low level mental health needs, whose needs are not best met by existing services and are deemed to benefit from a coaching approach. The majority of patients will be referred by GPs, social prescribers, care-coordinators and other organisations, but you may also act as a first point of contact. You will assess patients and apply a solution focussed approach to help them identify and address their mental health needs. You will be trained to provide a host of brief interventions to address problems such as anxiety, low mood, stress, self-esteem issues, poor coping skills to name a few. In some cases you will be expected to identify and refer/signpost patients to other partner services if there is a concern about levels of risk, safeguarding, or if their needs exceed your scope of expertise. You will also receive weekly group supervision. The role will primary be face-to-face, but there may be some remote working depending on the needs of the services.
Main duties of the job
Work as part of a multidisciplinary team as the first point of contact for patients with low to moderate mental health needs. Collaborate with patients to develop personalised care plans that respect individual beliefs, preferences, and access requirements, helping to reduce health inequalities.
Provide brief solution-focused interventions and behavioural activation techniques to support patients in identifying factors affecting their mental health and empower them to improve wellbeing. Adopt a holistic biopsychosocial approach, working closely with GPs, social prescribers, mental health practitioners, and external services to ensure appropriate support and referrals.
Recognise professional limitations and escalate patients presenting significant clinical risk, safeguarding concerns, or mental health crises to appropriate colleagues and services. Deliver follow-up support, coaching, and motivation to encourage engagement with treatment plans and promote self-management skills.
Provide consultations via face-to-face, telephone, and group formats. Maintain accurate clinical records using EMIS and complete reports. Develop links with GP practices, mental health services, and voluntary organisations to support integrated patient care.
Manage personal workload effectively, attend clinical and multidisciplinary meetings, contribute to PCN reporting requirements. Promote patient safety through incident reporting, quality improvement activities, participation in complaint management.
About us
North Lewisham Primary Care Network (NLPCN) is one of the largest PCNs in Lewisham and has a very diverse population made up of 9 GP Practices serving a population of around 91,000 patients.
Health inequality impacts our patients: North Lewisham has higher than average levels of deprivation and BAME populations and poorer health outcomes.
NLPCN is committed to tackling health inequality as a priority. We have developed a program of work to improve trust and engage with our local community, training our GP surgeries and staff to improve access for patients, improving our communication to patients about service changes and health promotion and improving the monitoring of those suffering from health inequality to drive our strategy.
The Waldron is a health centre and a community hub promoting health and wellbeing activities.
Job responsibilities
Vision and values
The aim of the NLPCN is to offer high quality patient-centred healthcare which is committed to bringing together GP practices so that they can more effectively work with others.
Our ambition is to reduce inequalities in healthcare and improve the quality of health and wellbeing throughout North Lewisham through increased access to high quality, integrated health, and social care.
As a PCN, NLPCN operates as part of the local accountable integrated care system, working and collaborating with GP practices, a wide range of healthcare professional, social services professionals as well as local community groups. This enables us to not only focus on direct health services but also on the social and other issues that impact on health thereby enhancing the health and wellbeing of patients and community.
We expect all our staff to share the values that are important to the PCN:
Equity of quality and equity of access for all residents in and around North Lewisham
Providing proactive, personalised, and coordinated care
Protecting and supporting general practice whilst also supporting transformation
Collaborating and engaging with others to spur on innovation and sustainable working.
The Role :
The prevalence of mental health disorders within Lewisham is significantly above the UK average and unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened this need. As a result, within the borough of Lewisham we are working together to improve the mental health of the local residents and have taken an asset-based community development and data driven approach to address the inequalities in access to mental healthcare across our communities.
As a Mental Health & Wellbeing Coach you will work collaboratively with our Senior Mental Health Practitioner and have access to the wider team which includes social prescribers, care coordinators, health and wellbeing coaches, an advanced nurse practitioner and other professionals for advice and supervision as needed. You will be directly integrated not only with the PCN staff but also with the local mental health trust (South London & Maudsley), to ensure that there is no wrong door into mental health services.
The successful applicant will work as part of a team of mental health and wellbeing coaches (MHWCs) and will receive formal Health & Wellbeing Coach Training accredited by the Personalised Care Institute (unless equivalent training already completed). You will see patients with low level mental health needs, whose needs are not best met by existing services and are deemed to benefit from a coaching approach. The majority of patients will be referred by GPs, social prescribers, care-coordinators and other organisations, but you may also act as a first point of contact. You will assess patients and apply a solution focussed approach to help them identify and address their mental health needs. You will be trained to provide a host of brief interventions to address problems such as anxiety, low mood, stress, self-esteem issues, poor coping skills to name a few. In some cases you will be expected to identify and refer/signpost patients to other partner services if there is a concern about levels of risk, safeguarding, or if their needs exceed your scope of expertise. You will also receive weekly group supervision. The role will primary be face-to-face, but there may be some remote working depending on the needs of the services.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team as a first point of contact for patients with low-medium level mental health needs
Work collaboratively with patients, to develop individualised management plans respecting their health beliefs, access requirements and care preferences to help reduce health inequalities within our communities.
Provide brief solution focussed interventions and employ behavioural activation techniques (training to be provided) to enable patients to identify the factors contributing to their poor mental health and empower them to take the steps necessary to address these.
To take a holistic (biopsychosocial) approach to mental health, working collaboratively with other PCN staff including social prescribers, GPs and mental health practitioners who may be better suited to meet an individual patients needs, or referring on to another service whether appropriate (e.g., IAPT, voluntary sector organisations)
Be aware of your limitations and appropriately escalating patients presenting significant clinical risk or safeguarding concerns to the appropriate colleague (e.g. mental health practitioner, duty GP). This may include initiating safeguarding referrals and referrals on to mental health crisis services where appropriate.
Ensure appropriate follow-up and provide ongoing coaching and motivation to promote engagement with services, treatment plans and the development of skills to manage their mental wellbeing more independently.
Provide consultations through a variety of modes including face-to-face, telephone and group sessions
Maintain accurate clinical records of all patient consultations and related work using the EMIS IT system (training can be provided)
Develop links with local GP practices, mental health services and voluntary organisations to provide more integrated support for patients.
Complete a range of written reports, as appropriate.
To be responsible for the day-to-day planning of personal workloads
Attend practice clinical and/or multi-disciplinary team meetings and report to the monthly PCN meeting when requested.
Contribute to a patient safety culture through reporting and investigation of incidents and undertaking proactive measures to improve patient safety.
Contribute to quality improvement activities as required.
Participate in the management of patient complaints when requested to do so and contribute to organisational learning ...
