Mental Health Advisor x2

Job id: 087391. Salary: £43,205 - £50,585 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 05 April 2024. Closing date: 28 April 2024.

Business unit: Students & Education. Department: Counselling & Mental Health Support.

Contact details:Dr Anca Alba, Associate Director, Counselling & Mental Health Support. [email protected]

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.  

The Counselling & Mental Health Support (CMHS) Service at King’s is a multi-disciplinary team comprising psychodynamic and integrative counsellors, group analysts, counselling psychologists, mental health advisors, clinical assessors and a consultant psychiatrist along with non-clinical staff who are key to the effective administrative operation of the service.  

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so.  

The post-holder will be part of the Mental Health Support Team and part of our university’s multi-disciplinary Counselling & Mental Health Support Team and will have experience and current accreditation as a Mental Health Nurse, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner or other qualified mental health practitioner. 

The post-holder will possess specialist knowledge of issues related to student mental health, including the assessment and management of risk, mental health assessment, crisis management, and external referral of cases (into external crisis services, etc.).  The post-holder will liaise with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure the university responds effectively to the mental health needs of students. They will work closely with the other two sub-teams that make up the Counselling & Mental Health Support Team (the Counselling and the Outreach & Training Sub-Teams) to ensure the appropriate referral of cases and an effective multi-disciplinary approach to all aspects of clinical work.  

These posts will be offered on an indefinite contract.

These are 2 full-time post, 100% FTE.

To provide confidential mental health support to students registered with the Counselling and Mental Health Support Service and to students referred to the Student of Concern Service and presenting with mental health difficulties and/or risk to self.

To carry out assessments including risk assessment & management for students self-referred to Counselling and referred via the Student of Concern process. Although ‘Student of Concern’ is not a crisis service, a high proportion of referred students indicate that they are at risk to self, and so the post holder will be expected to following service risk protocols and signpost students to appropriate services and escalate any student to crisis services if the need arises.

To offer short-term psychological interventions to students whose difficulties can be managed by low intensity and self-help oriented work and offer mental health support/advice/signposting to students who may be in distress or presenting with mental health risk to self or others.

Working at least one or two days/week triaging and manage ‘Student of Concern’ referrals.

To work with colleagues within Counselling and Mental Health Support Team and Student Services to support students with mental health conditions, including linking with internal and external organisations.

To act as an advocate for students in negotiating time out/moving to alternative modes of studies. To be responsible for providing an informed opinion and/or verifying students’ mitigating circumstances and to support students in requesting extensions for completing work/providing supporting statements for students in academic appeals.

To keep accurate and up-to-date client case notes ensuring that they are compliant with the data protection act. To maintain therapeutic boundaries at all times.

To comply with relevant legislation and regulations, including, for example, our duty of care, safeguarding legislation, data protection legislation (including the General Data Protection Regulation), equality legislation, and health and safety legislation.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

The post-holder will be required to:

• Attend regular clinical supervision in relation to casework
• Attend regular line management supervision and team meetings
• Ensure regular updating of skills and knowledge in line with developments in mental health research and practice and keep up to date with changes in legislation, and government policy with particular, but not exclusive, regard to the implications for HEI’s.
• Maintain professional accreditation with an appropriate professional body (Advisors within the team are personally responsible for meeting the costs incurred in securing and maintaining this accreditation).