Senior Mental Health Adviser

The role

We are looking to appoint 1x Full time, Fixed term, Senior Mental Health Advisor to join our Mental Health Advisory Service (MHAS)Team. The fixed term position is available from January 2027 – December 2027.

MHAS is a team of Senior Mental Health Advisors & Mental Health Advisors, within the student counselling service. We are positioned within the Education and Student Success Division and work in partnership with the Student Wellbeing Service, Residential Life, Disability Service and Student Health Service. MHAS works particularly with students with severe and enduring, complex mental health difficulties. The Mental Health Advisors are a group of highly skilled practitioners who work 1-1 and in groups with students and key functions of the role include triage and assessment, formulations, care planning, brief skills-based interventions, liaison, risk management and risk reduction work with students.

In line with the wider University strategy, we are committed to fostering equality, diversity and inclusion, and anti-racism. We particularly encourage applications from candidates who identify as male, come from or have significant experience of working with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, gender non-conforming communities and/or speak a global majority language (in addition to English). We are currently under-represented in these areas, although all appointments will be made on merit of the candidate.

The Student Counselling Service is working hard to create a welcoming, exciting and joyful place to work, meeting the demographic of the student population and offering more diverse and inclusive therapeutic support. As a team we are genuinely passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion; it forms a key thread through all the work we do. We want everyone that joins to be a part of this and to contribute to the friendly and fun community we are creating.

What will you be doing?

The MHAS team supports students with severe and enduring, complex mental health difficulties. As part of the team, you will work using the recovery model (hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy and support) with students and are responsible for case formulations, care planning, risk assessments, and the subsequent risk reduction and stabilisation interventions. You would be working with awareness of the different needs of the student population such as neurodivergent students, international students etc. Senior Mental Health advisors deliver 1-1 sessions with students, cover MHAS duty function on a rota basis, liaise with internal and external partners, and lead on project work when needed.

As a Senior Mental Health advisor, you will support MHAS staff around complex cases, assist in service risk management, and have a key role in supporting the development of the service. You will also be responsible for attending and contributing to a multi-disciplinary complex case meetings as well as responsibility for case reviews, service capacity management and allocations.

The MHAS Team are part of the wider student counselling service and attend full team meetings, CPD training and peer supervision spaces. Additional individual and group supervision is provided by external supervisors on a monthly basis.

You should apply if

You should apply if you are a qualified Mental Health Nurse, Mental Health Occupational Therapist, Mental Health Social worker or Clinical Psychologist, who holds current registration with a relevant professional body.

The professional body you are registered with must include a responsibility to maintain professional accreditation through updating skills and knowledge, and one which upholds a code of ethics and a complaints procedure.

You must be a registered mental health practitioner with significant clinical experience. You will have exceptional knowledge and in person experience of supporting people with complex mental health needs and have a good understanding of the specific needs of a diverse and unique population of university students. You will need to be able to work very independently, and at times with minimal direction, as well as working very collaboratively with colleagues to meet the needs and objectives the team.

The Senior Mental Health Advisors are based on site, due to the nature of the work. MHAS operates Monday, & Tuesday 9am – 6:30pm Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 9am -5pm. We do not offer condensed hours within the Mental Health Advisory Service as our client facing hours line up with the key services that we liaise with to appropriately manage risk and referrals.

Additional information

• Contract type: Fixed term until 31/12/2027
• Work pattern:
• Monday 9:00am – 5:00pm
• Tuesday 10:30am – 6:30pm
• Wednesday 9:00am– 5:00pm
• Thursday 9:00am – 5:00pm
• Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm
• Grade: J
• Salary: £ 44,746 - £50,253 per annum
• School/Unit: Education and Student Success
• This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on Monday 2nd November
• For any informal queries please contact Daniel Brownen [email protected]
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