Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

Job content

Would you like to work for a leading mental health charity?

Experience, qualification, and soft skills, have you got everything required to succeed in this opportunity Find out below.

Do you want a rewarding career where you can really make a difference?

If yes, join us here at Rethink Mental Illness.

If you are a qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP), we have an exciting opportunity for you to develop your skills within the Criminal Justice sector at two of the prisons in the North East Prison Estate, at either HMP Holme House in Stockton on Tees or HMP Durham in Durham City. You will join our friendly and inspiring team as a PWP. Your role will be a permanent position working full time, 37.5 hours per week based in the service. You will work Monday to Friday 08:00am -16:00pm, however some flexibility is required depending on service need. You will carry out your clinical work face to face within the prison environment.

Our service within the prisons provides psychological therapy for prisoners focusing on health education and self-help. We work as part of an integrated primary care mental health team within the Prison providing high volume, low intensity interventions. We offer a range of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) based self-management interventions, for clients with mild to moderate anxiety and depression. This includes providing guided self-help in both 1:1 and group formats, in line with the current Step 2 IAPT guidelines.

Working in a prison setting can be exciting, sometimes challenging, but also very rewarding. The mental health services cover the full spectrum of IAPT provision, and we work very closely with our NHS partners and other Rethink roles delivering Steps 1 to 3 of the IAPT Stepped Care model.

Who are we?

We’re Rethink Mental Illness, a leading charity provider of mental health services in England. We support thousands of people through our groups, services, policy, campaigns and advice and information. Our work supports us in delivering on our mission: “A better life for everyone severely affected by mental illness.”

In everything we do, we seek to demonstrate our values: Passion, Openness, Hope, Expertise, Understanding and equity, if these values resonate with you, we would love to hear from you.

What will you be doing?

Providing rapid screening and assessment, informed by knowledge of the spectrum of mental health needs and risk factors.

Providing assessment and Low intensity interventions e.g. psycho-educational interventions, Guided Self Help, drawing from CBT theories and techniques

Managing a high volume, low intensity caseload.

Identifying and develop prisoners to become trained Peer Mentors who will support first night reception centres, induction meetings, co-facilitate group sessions with PWPs and offer general peer support and awareness raising to prisoners.

Working as part of an integrated mental health team, with a range of other mental health professionals to ensure the most appropriate care is provided to patient

Do you have what we are looking for?

Successful completion of an academic course of study in line with the IAPT Low Intensity National Programme and qualified as a PWP, e.g. Post Grad Diploma in Psychological Therapies.

Post-qualification experience in offering and delivering the full range of evidence-based IAPT low intensity interventions at Step 2.

Evidence of working within a stepped care service with people who have experienced a mental health problem delivering and demonstrating recovery outcomes.

Knowledge of assessment procedures, screening, referral, record-keeping and evidence-based brief psychological interventions.

Some regional travel may be required from time to time and so you will possess a driving licence and access to transport.

The safety and wellbeing of our service users and colleagues is our first priority, which is why it is now a condition of employment for anyone joining us that they have either had the recommended Covid-19 vaccine or agree to have it when offered by the NHS. You can find more information on our approach and why we have made this important decision in our attached Covid-19 vaccination information document.

What will you receive?

You Will Also Receive

You will have plenty of opportunities to enhance your abilities with the opportunity to make a real difference every day. In addition, you will have excellent development opportunities including funded training, career development and a range e-learning courses.

Salary of £24,907 to £30,615 per annum

Contributory pension scheme

Life assurance and employee assistance programme

25 days annual leave rising to 30 days plus bank holidays

Your "Rethink Day" - 1 day’s additional leave (pro rata) on your Birthday

Eyecare vouchers

Regular supervision in line with IAPT guidelines, along with daily MDT case discussions and monthly line management supervision.

Don’t just change jobs, change lives!

The Recruitment Advisor looking after this role is Rose Adams. If you’d like to know any more about the position, please feel free to drop her an email at or give her a call on 07775682782.

We welcome applications from everyone, applicants with lived experience, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning+ (LGBTQ+), people with a disability, or those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are actively encouraged to apply. We are proud to have also been awarded Disability Confident employer status. We have an ambition of becoming an anti-racist organisation and we recognise there is more to do in ensuring our recruitment is fair and inclusive, which is why we are recruiting new roles in helping us to achieve this. Please be mindful that we may need to close adverts early if we receive a high volume of applications, we therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If a shortened closing date has a significant impact on your ability to apply, please let us know.

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