The Engagement and Support Officer will champion participation which includes volunteering, patient and friend & family carer involvement and the Expert by Experience role across the trust.
This role will work with service users, friend & family carers, experts by experience and staff to share experience, inspire hope and encourage engagement in participation in the trust as an option for recovery and career development.
This role will engage with individuals and groups using a peer approach, acting as a positive role model for people overcoming mental health challenges and supporting staff to embed meaningful participation approaches within their work.
This role will support the facilitation, implementation, development and review of the Participation team-led patient and friend & family carer experience initiatives
The People Participation Team at Sussex Partnership is a small team in the Communications and Engagement Directorate. It exists to support service users and carers to have a strong and influential voice in how the organisation is run and to find ways of working collaboratively to improve mental health services for everyone. This is based on the belief that it is only by listening to service users and carers’ experiences and working with them to create change, that we will deliver the best services.
Everything we do is guided by the 4pi Involvement Standards developed by NSUN the National Survivors Users Network. This is a simple framework of standards for good practice and to monitor and evaluate involvement.
Supporting those with lived experience
- To use parts of your recovery story to inspire hope in others to get involved in participation activities in the trust
- To engage with service users and their friend & family carer in participation as a tool for recovery, a way to utilise existing skills and to gain purpose and independence.
- To promote and make service users and friend & family carer aware of personal strengths, skills and attributes and how these can be channelled into participation.
Development of patient and friend & family carer participation
- To support the team to champion the importance of patient and friend & family carer experience in shaping trust services, ensuring this is at the heart of trust activities and service improvement.
- To participate in monitoring patient and friend & family carer feedback and satisfaction with the overall service, including undertaking satisfaction surveys.
- To participate in a range of initiatives including listening events, focus groups and surveys to ensure that the trust involves and listen to patients and friend & family carer.
- To support services and teams to adopt best practice on patient / service user involvement.
- To support services and teams in the development of their Working Together Groups.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- To respect the individuality, values, cultural and religious needs of service users and friend & family carer and ensure that engagement activities consider diversity and inclusion.
- To highlight any inequalities or disparity in the individuals and groups who are engaged in participation in the trust.
- Leading specific patient and friend & family carer experience projects and undertaking project work as directed by the Patient and Carer Experience Lead.
Monitoring and reporting
- To gather feedback from patients, friend & family carer and the public and record this on the Participation team database.
- To record patient and friend & family carer and volunteer involvement activity on the Participation team database and review this regularly with team members.
- To access report manager and other platforms to pull sources of data around people’s experience and produce reports under the direction of the Patient and Friend & family carer Experience Lead.
Recruiting, inducting and supporting volunteers and Experts by Experience
- To support the recruitment, induction and training of Experts by Experience
Communication and relationships
- To work closely with Peer Support Workers and Friend & family carer Leads to identify service users and friend & family carer who may benefit from involvement and participation activities.
- To work collaboratively with services, clinicians and managers, supporting their local patient and friend & family carer involvement strategies.
- To form professional relationships with service users and friend & family carer.
- To develop and maintain effective communication with services, departments and staff.
- To participate in events, conferences and workshops with a focus on patient and friend & family carer experience and volunteer celebration.
- To use social media platforms to promote patient and friend & family carer opportunities.
